Crashland
by Qihao56
Summary: A terran spacecraft crash-lands on the world of Fire Emblem, containing technologies far beyond the understanding of the locals. The new path will be shaped by how each side can adapt to the new variable. The world will experience a quick but brutal change. Whether it's for the better or worse is up for debate. Multiple SI/OC.
1. Faster-Than-Light (Prologue)

Disclaimer: Fire Emblem and all its assets belong to Nintendo and intelligent systems.

Second disclaimer : Minor gore and some swearing.

* * *

_Earth, Space Station 5W_

The hull of an armed freighter, a few hundred meters in length, was docked on one of the many ports of the space station as it waited for its cargo to be loaded. The ship only had orange markings and the name _ISS San Pellegrino_ painted on the port side to distinguish it from the black void behind it, the paint originating from the ship's original purpose as an asteroid miner.

In the bridge of the ship, a blond man sat in the captain's chair. He readjusted his glasses as he examined the cargo manifest, waiting for the ship to be ready. As one of the biggest FTL-capable freighters and one renown for their work, they had the advantage of obtaining the most lucrative contracts as many companies and governments bidded for their services.

The communications specialist hung beside the captain, looking bored out of his mind. The man had a short stature and messy brown hair. Dominic, he was called.

"Why are we still here?" The comms specialist asked, ignoring the chatter on the radio.

"Just to suffer." The captain replied, expressing the same boredom as they waited.

A person entered the bridge before silence could set in. Most notable of the newcomer was his asian features and his urban-style camouflage cargo pants.

"Hugo, the ship is loaded with supplies and equipment. We're ready to leave port." the man announced, saluting with one hand and gripping the edge of the console with the other. Zero-G was sometimes an annoying aspect of being a spacer, where no gravity meant no clear "down" direction. One could easily injure themselves by accident due to floating off.

The captain nodded. "Thank you Qihao. We're gonna leave in a few minutes"

"Understood. I'll be in engineering if you need me." Qihao replied, exiting the room through a hatch.

"Alright, check if everything's working on the ship." Commanded Hugo, sipping from a cup of coffee. A special cap was in place to prevent the liquid from freely floating around.

"We're good." Julien, the gunner of the ship sounded. He scratched his brown combed hair a bit and readjusted his thick rimmed glasses.

Another voice came from the captain's right. That post was occupied by their Jump Core specialist, the operator of the systems responsible for the Faster-Than-Light capabilities of the spaceship. Chan Sung turned and faced Hugo, staring into his soul. "Can we go now?"

"Alright then Channy." He casually replied, used to that expression.

He looked at the long list of people on board and double-checked presence via the use of the radio and simple shouting for the other crewmen in the bridge. This annoying safeguard was in place to prevent a repeat of an incident involving multiple people being forgotten on the station.

"Alright Tristan we're good to go!" He said to the helmsman in front of him once everyone sounded off.

The helmsman nodded. The man originated from sweden was being more or less a caricature of the features of a scandanavian viking. Messy blond hair, blue eyes and considerable height.

The spaceship backed away slowly before turning around and unleashing its main thrusters, leaving the recently renovated spaceport behind.

"All systems online and fully operational, qi out" Informed the ship's engineer over the radio.

"The jump drive is ready, I put in the coordinates. Uh, once we clear the port we can jump" Chan Sung added.

A few minutes of travel later, Hugo tapped on his console "Tristan, prepare our ship for jumping"

"Alright" answered the man.

After they were clear of the rapidly growing spaceport of their native planet, the ship stopped and re-oriented itself towards its destination.

Chan Sung looked at the captain. "Ey b0ss, we can jump now"

Hugo nodded, sending the final command to the faster-than-light jump systems.

White rings formed around the ship, as the ship was encased in a 'bubble' for faster-than-light travel. However, a stray object hit the port side of the ship, throwing it slightly off course. The small rock came out of nowhere, somehow evading all of the ship's sensors.

* * *

The ship exited its 'bubble', arriving in a section of space that harbored a bright A class sun and an asteroid belt. It was clearly not the destination they were expecting, judging from the surprise of the crew on board.

"Uh… we've jumped but we're off course." Chan Sung reported.

Hugo turned on his microphone and answered him sarcastically. "Fantastic news." He paused for effect. "How far did we go?"

"I don't know. It looks like we got hit when jumping."

The captain sighed. "Prep for another jump when we find out where we ended up."

As the rest of the crew in the bridge used their consoles to try to triangulate their position, the communications specialist found a signal originating from the asteroid belt.

"Hey Hugo, there's a distress signal."

"From where?" The sudden information peaked his interest.

"In front of us." He answered, pointing forwards in the direction of the asteroid belt.

"Tristan! Move us to that distress signal." He ordered, thinking there was not much else to do as their jump drive cooled down

* * *

As they approached the distress signal, the ship's sensors managed to pick up the source. A small shuttle sat in the middle of the belt without any life signs on board.

"I think we're too late." Tristan replied when the information was presented on his navigation screen.

"Hey guys, three ships are approaching from starboard and two from port side. We're surrounded." Julien notified.

The communications specialist grimaced suddenly. "I've just received a message. They want us to surrender our ship and cargo." The man turned towards their captain. "That sounds like pirates."

"Goddamnit it's a trap." Hugo muttered irritatedly. "Everyone get ready to fight!" He said over the intercom, having no intention to back down.

"Weapons Online, Engines Online, Defense Matrix Online. All systems are good to go." Qihao informed over the radio.

"Well no shit it's a trap!" Julien grumbled, flipping the safety switch off on the weapon systems.

"Shoot closest, Julien. Tristan, shake them off of us!" Hugo ordered.

A cannon round struck them as the ship struggled out of its torpor. The armed freighter was knocked back by the force of the rounds, the movement disorienting the crew momentarily. The _ISS San Pellegrino_ retaliated by launching a salvo of high-explosive guided ordinance at one of the unknown attackers.

Taking full advantage of the manoeuvering thrusters usually reserved for docking, Tristan slid the ship behind an asteroid as the missiles finished launching, ducking into cover as more fire poured down from their opponents. The ship's thrusters all flared to life as the spacecraft drifted around the rock.

As the helmsman scrambled to keep the ship steady during the turn, multiple pieces of debris flew out from the other side of the asteroid. It was confirmation of the destruction of the targeted corvette.

"I got him" cheered Julien. He slung the ship's turreted mid-caliber cannons around to fire at the ships coming from the other side as the autoloader readied more missiles.

A salvo of lasers and shells was blocked by their cover, taking some of the impending problems off of them momentarily. Meanwhile, the ships coming from the exposed flank closed in while firing their weapons, looking to disable the large freighter and board it to retrieve it's precious cargo.

The ship began leaking precious oxygen into the void as a cannon slug punched a hole in its side. The breach was then quickly sealed by closing off the oxygenation systems from that bulkhead by an AI.

The assistant engineer looked at the damage dealt and noticed that the shot should have been much more problematic. "Hey Qihao that shield was a good idea!"

"Structural integrity fields!" The asian grumbled.

"Same thing!"

G-forces suddenly slammed into the crew as the main thrusters went on full power, evading further shots from connecting with the hull.

The opposing space pirate weapons were silent in the void of space, no air available to propagate sound. The only hearing protection the crew needed was against their own guns. However, only being able to hear the _ISS San Pellegrino_ made combat eerie.

The fight continued on with the pirate frigate shaken off as they headed into a thicker part of the asteroid field. It too hazardous to travel for most ships unless you were either very brave, very stupid or very competent at dodging rocks that flew around as fast as missiles, and could hit just as hard

Manoeuvres from the freighter barely evaded the constant barrage of weapons fire of the smaller ships that followed the _ISS San Pellegrino _into the danger zone. Although the ship was significantly larger than any of the pursers, it was older and wasn't purpose-created for battle. The only advantage they had was experience.

"Are there any particularly volatile asteroids?" The captain asked, keeping an eye on the fight. Meanwhile, the defense matrix neutralized three missiles that tried to pursue them.

"Yes!" A crewman answered.

"Put it on Julien's HUD! When we pass it, I want it blown up in the direction of the pirates!"

Once the ship made it past the expected explosion radius, the large and rocky asteroid reacted violently with the guided explosives. The bright yellow explosion knocked around a lot of surrounding asteroids, causing them to crash into each other and fragment.

The space debris endangered any nearby vessels daring enough to chase. This man-made trash barrier's effectiveness was immediately realized as it tore a ship stupid enough to try to barge through it into multiple pieces. The rest took a wide berth to safety after witnessing their comrades shredded into fine metallic and flesh cheese.

"Tristan, are the engines still working?" Asked the captain, an irritated tone in his voice as his senses recovered.

The swede quickly fired each thruster momentarily to check for damage."Yeah." he answered, satisfied that the ISS San Pellegrino could still had most of its power intact.

"Emergency jump! We need to get out of here." He barked to his jump.

Chan Sung immediately went to work entering information for an emergency jump out of the system.

The ship quickly maneuvered around, turning towards their next destination.

As rings formed around the ship to envelop it in a 'bubble' for their jump, Tristan felt the need to comment.

"Guys I have a bad feeling about this"

Dominic looked away from his station's monitor and right into the eye of his comrade in the bridge.

"Never say that. Ever."

* * *

_Some time later…_

The ship exited it's warp bubble for the second time within hours and entered another solar system. Looking out the bridge, the crew realized there was an exo-planet right in front of them. They arrived within the gravity well of it, thus the ship was being pulled towards the gigantic object.

"Wow that's a sight" remarked the group's leader, taking in the view of the blue cosmic entity.

"Never seen a fucking planet before?" Someone quipped sarcastically.

"No shit Jul-"

"Guys I don't think this is Earth, or a colonised planet" interrupted Dominic, confused.

Indeed, as the planet seemed to be a habitable planet complete with multiple continents and oceans, it did not feature any sign that an advanced civilization may have been there. Not a singular spaceborne signature.

"The ship's getting pulled by the gravity of the exo-planet." The blond helmsman remarked.

"WELL DON'T JUST FUCKING STAND THERE!" screamed Julien from his seat.

Tristan tried to steer the ship away from the planet, but a loss of thrust forbid the ship from escaping the graps of the cosmic entity.

"Shit we're gonna crash!" Gilles yelled over the intercom, realizing the engines had flamed out.

The helmsman frantically tried to find a way to escape the planet, but to no avail. The ship kept drifting, powerless.

"Engineering to captain, fire's put out and thrusters are back up and running." reported Qihao.

"QUARNO COULDN'T YOU DO IT EARLIER?!" remarked a very irritated Julien

"There was a fire." Qihao deadpanned.

Hugo immediately decided to stop their pointless arguing before it could begin. "Alright you two stop talking, Tristan, turn the ship around and try to get us away from the planet." he ordered.

"Aye sir" The swede answered.

The ISS San Pellegrino turned its entire body around with its maneuvering thrusters and attempted to escape the grasp of the exo-planet. However, it was too late to escape the pull of gravity.

"Hugo, I think we're gonna crash anyways." Dominic glumly noted.

"Ah, crap. Any ideas?" Hugo grimaced.

"We could uh-jump." Chan Sung suggested.

"Negative, Jump Core, the jump drives are practically destroyed." The Qihao replied.

Dominic raised his hand. "Crashland safely by doing the re-entry protocol we practiced before? You know, the thing we did years when we began shipping things just IN CASE things went horribly wrong like RIGHT NOW?"

"Oh right! Forgot we actually did that at some point." The captain quickly gave the order to everyone to brace for landing.

An hour passed as they drifted closer to the planet. The atmosphere was incredibly tense inside the bridge.

"Qihao, you sure the thrusters are at max power?"

A few seconds of silence passed, then everyone aboard could hear a massive noise coming from the aft section of the ship. The helmsman suddenly reported that the ship is slowing down from increased power.

The radio crackled to life with Qihao's voice. "Directing reactor output from weapons and Point-Defense to thrust. The engines are going to be burned out after this."

"Not that it's going to matter." Hugo replied.

As the ship was nearing the surface of the planet, it started slowing down due to increasing drag and additional power being pumped out by the hard-working engines. The ship slowly breached the atmosphere of the planet, reaching such temperatures outside the craft that some parts of the hull began glowing.

Tristan kept the crew informed of their descent, ignoring a bead of sweat going down his forehead. "10 kilometers, 8 kilometers, 7 kilometers, 6 kilometers, 5500 meters, 5000 meters, .."

"Thrusters are failing! Moving all power to structural integrity systems!" The engineer replied.

Hugo gripped his seat tightly "Son of a bitch."

**END OF SHIP LOGS...**


	2. Generating New World (Chapter 1)

The feeling of the impact following the crash rushed to Qihao's mind, the spike of g-forces on his body as the ship slowed down. "AAAH I NEED A MEDIC BAG!" he screamed, remembering the pain on his body.

"Hello." A benign voice called.

"Who are you? Where am I?" Qihao asked, still feeling concussed.

"I'm god." The asian then heard a near silent snicker come from his left ear.

Qihao took a few moments to process. He then felt that the voice felt oddly familiar. "God doesn't fucking exist Dominic I know it's you!" he realized. His eyes snapped open at the sight of the short scottish man sitting on a chair.

"Oh no! I have been revealed!" His friend answered, laughing. He put up his hands in surrender as his fellow crew member looked at him accusingly.

The asian engineer shook his head in annoyance. He then noticed he was in a dimly lit room, surrounded by stone walls and a single window. The furniture present was only composed of the bed which he sat on and the chair.

"So… what happened?" he asked, wincing as he painfully propped himself up on the wall.

"We crashed." the scot said, a 'deal with it' expression on his face.

"Tell me something I didn't know." Qihao rolled his eyes, checking his body for wounds.

Dominic chuckled. "We landed on farmland and now the owner's pissed."

"You're not serious." The asian immediately stopped mid-action and slowly craned his head, staring right into the eyes of the other seemingly very amused man in the room.

"I am." The scotsman declared, barely able to hold in his amusement.

"So you're telling me this planet has primitive civilization and we just happen to land in someone's bloody farm?!" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes!" Dominic answered, laughing loudly.

Qihao threw his arms up, unable to comprehend the humour. "WHAT THE FUCK!"

Dominic guffawed at the man's perplexed expression, clutching at his sides.

"RIGHT WHAT'S SO FUCKING FUNNY YOU WANKER?!" he yelled, a single eyelid twitching.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH" Dominic rolled on the floor, entirely consumed by laughter.

Qihao facepalmed, deciding to deal with the scotsman's shenanigans later. He sighed and got off the bed.

* * *

A few minutes attempting to navigate inside the humble stone house later, the asian engineer finally managed to exit the building. He took in the sight of the massive crashed freighter barely planted inside the field of unknown agricultural plants. The spacecraft laid flat on the ground, main thrusters completely unserviceable. The ship cut a devastating path, sweeping away the ground's earthly flesh in its wake. It resulted in the creation of a rocky trail through the forest surrounding the area. Considering the thing just plummeted down from outer space at Mach speeds, he was impressed that the ship was not in a million pieces.

Qihao scratched his head, attempting to calculate how they ended up here and how they survived without so much as a single death from what his friend told him.

Moments later, he heard a pair of footsteps behind him. The man turned around, finding the short scot accompanied by a very young man wearing a simple blue shirt and brown baggy pants. The new person had messy hair similar to Dominic's, a curly mess of scalp. However, it was shorter than the scotsman's portable bush.

Qihao raised an eyebrow as his friend did some gestures, prompting the farmer to nod and extend a hand towards him. The asian accepted the hand and shook it.

"Dominic, are you sure a handshake means the same thing here?" cautiously asked Qihao, pulling back his hand.

The scotsman shrugged in response.

The farmer tried to spark a conversation, but none of the two terrans present could understand it. The awkwardness ensued until the local threw his hands up and left, calling out for someone as he entered his house.

Qihao sighed. "We're going to need to go take classes aren't we."

Dominic nodded grimly, putting his hands to his sides. "Yup. Here we go again."

"Well where's the others? I'm going to see what we can salvage from the ship." The engineer asked, looking around the area.

"Hugo, Julien and some other guys are off hunting. We're supposed to set up the tents. Tristan and Chan Sung are already working on it." resumed the scotsman.

The asian engineer stretched his hurting body, readying himself for work. "I'll try to get power up first so we can get some basic machinery working again." He began walking towards the crashed _ISS San Pellegrino_.

Dominic shook his head and left for his own duties.

* * *

_Around a week or two later..._

Hugo sipped the ale, relishing the fact that classes were over for the day. He watched as people milled around the inn, some eyeing his clothing curiously. The captain of the _ISS San Pellegrino_ looked at his dirtied synthetic fabric clothing and shrugged, not particularly caring about standing out.

He finished his drink and paid his tab, waving as he left the decently sized building. Hugo walked through the small town, finding a now familiar face on the road.

"Hey Donnel."

"'Ey you'self. Whatch'a doin?" answered the farmer, now unbothered by the fact that they parked a spaceship in his backyard since they helped him with work. He pushed a wooden wheelbarrow with a tarp over it, in the direction of his home.

"Going to check up on everyone. What about you?" Hugo answered as he continued walking towards the same destination.

"Getting somethin' for the lad that wears green' brown." Donnel shrugged, unsure what the the tall asian had in mind. "By th'way, yer ylissean is gettin' better." he pointed out.

The blond man nodded, a hint of happiness on his face. "Thank you."

They silently arrived to the crashed ship and proceeded to enter by the cargo bay door on the starboard flank of the vessel. As they entered the engineering bay where the mysterious spirit known as Qihao dwelled, they heard Tristan irritatedly remark something in english.

"Qihao you need more exercise." commented the swede.

"Fuck off." the asian retorted.

Donnel and Hugo raised an eyebrow as they rounded a massive tarped object blocking their view of the two other people. They spot the engineer assembling a black irregularly shaped plastic object as Tristan inspected red plastic tube shaped objects slightly bigger than a thumb, more of which was on the workbench between the two. There was also an open container labeled 'Mark-XII Propellant' on the table.

"Qihao! Go do some exercise! You're skinnier than a stick." Hugo added as Donnel placed the wheelbarrow nearby.

The man in question turned around, facing the newcomers. He raised an eyebrow. "Et tu?"

Donnel looked between them, amused even if he didn't understand anything other than the asian's name. "Sir, the things ye' order'd is here. The smith sends ye' thanks for new forgin' tek-te-" His face scrounges up as he continued trying to pronounce the word. "-techniques n'tools."

Tristan snickered, earning himself an indignant stare from the farmer.

Qihao nodded towards Donnel and unveiled the contents of the wheelbarrow. A metal tube, small pellets, small short cylindrical casings and other metal bits and pieces.

"What's this for?" Hugo asked as the asian engineer took the tube and some of the smaller objects, putting them all on the workbench.

The tube was inserted into the plastic object and secured using another smaller metal item. More pieces were added to the inside of the amalgamation, resulting in an awfully familiar profile of a certain object.

Tristan, meanwhile, took some of casings and white chunks of 'Mark-XII propellant' out of the box, assembling them with the red plastic cylinders on the workbench. He passed half a dozen finished ones to Qihao, who inserted them inside it from the bottom of the metal and plastic stick.

It produced a satisfying 'ch-ch' as Qihao pumped the object using the front handle. The asian held it out in front of him, the grip waiting for a hand to take it and use it.

"What have you done…" Hugo took the weapon from Qihao, inspecting the 3D-printed frame and black construction. Donnel watched in confusion as a massive grin crept up the blond man's face.

"Ready to go hunting Sir?" Qihao asked, saluting with his own grin.

"Fuck yes." answered the captain, nodding in excitement.

"Be careful with it." Tristan commented, depositing a few more completed items on the table.

Hugo rolled his eyes and ordered them to assemble a hunting party to be ready in five minutes.

As the two left, Donnel looked at the man "Wha' dos that thin' do?" he asked.

"You will see if you go hunting with us. Do you want to?" Hugo offered.

"Sur', why not." The farmer shrugged. "I'll need t' tell me ma' first." he noted.

The canadian put the black object on the table besides the red cylinders. "Go ahead. We'll wait for you."

Donnel took out the leftover materials from the wheelbarrow and left with it.

* * *

_Later..._

A bandit swordsman named John and his comrades were stalking their targets for the opportunity to strike. He remarked the party they were after was composed of a mishmash of gear. One had a pair of pants matching the colours of the forest and a device covering both his ears, another held a metal tube and all except for one wore seemingly fairly high quality clothes. That guy wore a bucket for a helmet for some reason. Seriously these guys had weird fashion sense.

He quickly shook his head to regain his focus.

A blond man gestured to another. Tristan understood the hand movements and stood up from his position to line up an arrow on one of the grazers. The peaceful animal similar to a deer was completely unaware of the threat hidden in the nearby trees and bushes.

John, slowly crept up behind the swede.

_**BANG**_

As he was about to jump from the bush to do a surprise takedown, a very loud sound disoriented him and made him fall short of stabbing Tristan. He saw the man that gestured earlier, pointing a metallic tube at someone else.

The fight had begun with Hugo scoring first blood; taking the head off of one of the bandits and showering the surrounding foliage in blood using the new weapon.

The sound that accompanied it shook the forest to its core; birds took flight in massive flocks, every bush and tree rustled with the sound of rudely awakened wildlife. Chaos quickly ensued in the following minutes.

The shotgun produced a sound as the leader of the Dumbs moved his left arm back then fourth, ejecting a red case from the weapon.

By this time, Tristan noticed John on the ground and swore. The swedish man immediately drew the bow handed to him and shot an arrow at him. The projectile pinned his leg to the ground, preventing him from moving. He laid his head down on the ground, hoping that he will be ignored. Just as he had hoped. the inexperienced archer took his attention elsewhere.

_**BANG**_

A scream came from his brother, Jon. He was regretting waking up this morning. The _demon_ with the _weapon_ was quickly picking them off one by one.

* * *

Samara, huffed in annoyance as she readied another arrow on her bow. She knew she had the advantage, pushing forward while preventing him from retaliation. by effectively pinning the asian down with accurate arrow fire. She was sporting black robes with an ornate hood, and fought with grace and style. She felt pretty confident in her ability to kill him.

Samara grinned as she closed in for the killing blow. As she turned the corner around the tree, she came face to face with the head of an arrow

Before she could do anything, she was ambushed with an arrow to the eye socket from point blank, blinding her. Qihao did not hesitate to continue attacking as she was in shock, ripping out the arrow while slamming his body side-first onto hers. The arrow was ripped out as she was crushed under the man's body.

Pink matter and blood were thrown around, painting Qihao's left side of the face with the insides of her skull. Even if she survived, she would have been crippled for life.

Qihao didn't hesitate replacing his crude bow with her beloved iron bow and arrows. He quickly rolled to pick himself off the ground and equipped himself with her quiver, leaving her limp body without batting an eye. An instant later, he already had another target in his sights.

* * *

Chan Sung and Donnel were holding off a swordsman and an axewoman with their spears. Sweat dripped down the terran's brows, his breathing heavy. The farmer meanwhile, cursed non-stop as they gave ground to prevent themselves from being skewered.

"AAH!" Donnel yelled, evading a particularly close slash from the sword bandit.

The swordsman was the bandit team's leader, Jim. He was the only one in his group wearing any actual pieces of armor, sporting a chainmail shirt under his assortment of leather clothing. He tried aggressively to try to get into the range of the spearmen, but the constant backpedalling and range disadvantage was being problematic.

"Stop running you coward!" the man mocked, unable to close in.

_Twang_

Jim fell down to an arrow to the knee. Blood and bones flew out the exit of the wound, dyeing the neaby grass in crimson. The crippling shot came from Qihao's brand new weapon, a few dozen meters away from them.

The other opponent momentarily took her attention off of her targets. Donnel noticed and surged forwards, spear aimed at the woman's chest.

"'scuse me!" he yelled, closing his eyes as he heard a squelch.

Her wide eyes stared back at the young man, prompting him to drop his weapon as she fell to her knees, clutching at her wound. Her breathing was heavy, trying to keep herself together as pain the pain hit her. Donnel watched in horror as blood poured out from the punctured heart.

She forcefully craned her head towards the young farmer. "You fought well, kid…" she said. Feeling energy quickly leaving her, she accepted her fate and let her arms hang limp. "I'm Cyras, what's your name?" She asked after a bloody cough.

"Donnel. Ma name's Donnel." he quickly sputtered, completely unprepared for this situation.

She nodded.

Donnel didn't have time to say anything else as she fell onto the ground, death claiming her as the grass was dyed red by her blood.

As the young farmer watched his first kill in absolute horror, Chan Sung jumped back, trying to dodge Jim falling onto the ground. He attempted to land and strike back, but with his mind in a panic, his footing was off.

"SHIT!" he yelled as he landed on his back and dropped his spear.

But before any of the two fallen could take action, more arrows came from Qihao... mostly missing his target. The asian wearing camouflage cursed as he ran out of arrows. His eyes blazed with a silent fury as he took out a knife from one of his many pant pockets to finish the man off, rushing towards him in full sprint.

* * *

In another part of the forest, Tristan nocked another arrow on his bow, readying a shot at an axe wielding bandit. The swede's arms were shaking, unsure if he should take the shot. Before he could stop panicking, he was hit by a thrown knife.

"OOF!" Tristan let out as he fell onto the ground.

The axeman proceeded to charge at him while he was down. The blade had struck the swedish man's chest but was narrowly stopped short of his vitals by his ribcage. Tristan screamed as blood surged from the severed veins and cracked bones. In the midst of the battle, the bandit forgot one detail: another blond man now had him in his sights.

_**BANG**_

The muscular man hit by the pellets gets thrown forward and above Tristan. He tumbled hit a tree, snapping his neck in the process.

Tristan screamed again in pain, having been grazed by a pellet in the left arm. The projectile did not hit any bones, but it tore through muscle.

Once all the fighting came to an end, the forest was eerily silent.

Hugo moved to Tristan to help him slow the bleeding as the wounded man was panicking and hyperventilating.

Chan Sung, Donnel and Qihao quickly rejoined with the group, new bloody items within their grasp. The farmer looked absolutely horrified.

Qihao took a pack of gauze out of his many pockets and passed it to Hugo. The group's leader then started to bandage up Tristan's profusely bleeding wounds.

Unnoticed, John finally dislodged the arrow, got up and ran away from the bloodied scene. Qihao spotted him and was about to give chase but was stopped by Chan Sung.

"Let him go. It isn't worth it." he stated, staring into the other asian's soul.

Qihao watched the last bandit flee for his life. "Fine." he answered, collapsing on the ground..

Hugo looked back to the fresh corpses on the ground after calming himself down from the rush of adrenaline. "We should salvage anything useful." he noted.

The rest of the group simply nodded and moved around to strip off any equipment they can carry.

* * *

"Well I guess that happened." Dominic glumly commented as Tristan finished recounting the story. The scotsman examined his wounds, probing for any signs of infection. The swede sat on a log near a decently-sized campfire at the center of their tent formation. Most of the crew was sat around the fire, conversing about the day's events.

Donnel had already alerted his mother about the incident and was promptly sent away to get aid from the village's cleric. Qihao was in the engineering bay doing something... again.

Many conversations sprouted, some about getting jobs and income, some about the ambush and some 'how the fuck do we get off this rock'.

Hugo sighed, watching the group mill around aimlessly in the night. He still felt some of the effects from the ambush, especially the tinnitus from shooting without hearing protection. Dominic finished examining Tristan and decided to sit beside their leader.

"Oy." the scotsman tiredly greeted.

"Hey." Hugo replied, moving aside slightly to grant his friend space to sit.

"So. What now?" he asked, evidently aware they had no recourse for this situation.

"I don't know, maybe we try to stay alive? We don't exactly have a way to go home now do we." the blond man idly noted.

Dominic shrugged. "Let's try to fuck some shit up?" he suggested, trying to scour his mind for ideas.

Hugo stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know, do something that isn't just staying at a random-arsed village in the middle of nowhere." the scotsman specified.

The canadian's eyebrows rose as he looked back at the fire. "Go on an adventure?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Maybe later when we're not about to die. Right, I'm gonna call the night, I'm fucking tired." Hugo groaned, standing up and stretching.

The rest of the group was evidently tired too, as some have already gone back to their tents to rest.

"Alright everyone! So it's already night, we should all go to sleep." Hugo announced, addressing himself to all around the campfire..

He received many nods and tired crewmen agreements. However, when everyone came back to their tents to rest, no one noticed one man remained at the campfire, staring at the starry night sky. He decided to stay to think for a bit before he nodded off so he could hopefully clear his shrouded mind.

Hugo knew he was an intelligent man, although he never really exceeded academically, he did manage to stake an early claim on a decommissioned governmental mining ship that became their lifestyle.

The mining ship was quickly converted to a freighter by the The dumbs that composed of the currently crash-landed group of people. As the space industry was still in its early infancy, the converted spaceship was the only space-borne cargo vessel equipped for FTL travel. This gave the group a valuable edge as they were able to secure a governmental contract for delivering supplies to other planets. Money and side benefits came in droves as the ship was critical in the development of colonies.

The ship was then renamed _ISS San Pellegrino _after Hugo ran out of good ideas for names and people started asking the soda drinks by the same name to be delivered.

As the The Dumbs became richer, various groups started putting a bounty on them to capture the ship. This prompted the immediate reaction by Qihao to install weaponry and a shielding system. He almost denied the installation of the shields as the technology was still in its infancy and took up valuable space. However it proved its worth as it saved them from dying more than once.

A year after the contract ended and some negotiating later, they had a good amount of money saved up and could all retire early while still in their mid 30s. However before that could happen, they crashed on this unknown planet, and they're not the only sapients around.

"For fucks sake." he spat.

He kept contemplating his life decisions and asking himself where he went wrong. Only once the sun rose that he realized that he got zero sleep. He sighed and decided to sleep the day off.

* * *

The village elder watched from beside the farfort's small militia composed of 3 people, mostly retired veterans of the last war, mulling over the introduction of a new weapon. The new group that recently arrived at the village was a surprisingly welcome addition, providing them with useful new things like farming techniques and improvements to the local forge.

Qihao stood beside Hugo as both members of the crashed _ISS San Pellegrino_ presented the grey firearm to the men and women responsible for the defense of the village against bandits. The shotgun was on a wooden table that the village provided for the occasion.

"Hugo?" suddenly spoke the asian engineer.

"Yes?" Hugo turned his head towards him, taking his attention off the militiamen debating.

"The development of the MPBR is almost complete, we're just doing a few final tests." he declared in satisfaction.

"What's that thing again?" The blond man asked, scratching his head. A slew of recent events went through his mind. They were managing to begin getting access to housing and spare money from work . There were a lot of things that kept them very busy during the week.

"After we managed to get the engineering bay back up and running we could manufacture complicated objects. And since we recently got ambushed on a hunt, you decided to order us to make a rifle."

"Oh right. Thanks for reminding me. Anything I should know about it?" he asked.

Qihao put a hand to his chin, digging into his memories. "Caseless ammunition, Fully automatic, Magazine-fed battle rifle. We're almost done with it. The biggest hurdles so far are the metallic parts, since the steel quality here is absolutely horrendous. We can synthesize plastics and other bits but if the metal bends slightly each time you fire it you're gonna break the weapon quickly." He sighed. "So currently we're stuck with no rifling and a barrel that breaks after one to two magazines."

"I wanted you guys to make a hunting rifle or something like that. Not _that_." Hugo pinched his nose in exasperation.

"Be careful what you wish for." Qihao near-silently replied as the members of the militia stopped discussing between each other.

The sole man in the militia group approached them. His clothing was mostly made out of leather, completed with a chainmail shirt. He wielded the longsword strapped to his side. "It's too expensive. We decided that we would rather consider other options. But thank you for the offer." he nodded.

"Understandable, have a good day." Hugo answered, picking the weapon up and beginning to leave the area with a grimace. He heard the asian engineer sigh behind him as the group dispersed.

Suddenly, a horse barged into the village, panting heavily. The rider hopped off immediately and began frantically asking for the village elder.

"Send help! Bandits are raiding our village!" he begged.

Hugo turned around suddenly as he heard the man shout. "What the fuck is going on?"


	3. Contact (Chapter 2)

Disclaimer: Fire Emblem and all its assets belong to Nintendo and intelligent systems.

* * *

"Chrom, we have to do SOMETHING!" a voice insisted.

"Lissa, what do you propose we do?" Asked 'Chrom'.

"I… I dunno…" She replied.

She reluctantly let sunlight pass through to her eyes. She noted a trio of strangers were eyeing her curiously. Although she was sure they had never met before, she felt a strange sense of familiarity upon seeing them.

"I see you're awake now." noted the young man with blue hair. His clothing was a shade darker than his hair, completed with a white cape. She noticed the presence of an ornate sword at his hip. Oddly enough his right arm was exposed and had a symbol on the shoulder.

"Hey there!" Lissa greeted excitedly. She examined the appearance of the lively girl...woman? She was quite young in her appearance; short with green eyes and twin pigtails. For some odd reason, she could not recall her own name but she knew the stranger's.

"There are better places to take a nap than on the ground you know." Chrom said with an amused smile on his face. "Give me your hand."

She extended a gloved hand and was promptly pulled up from the grassy floor. Once standing, she quickly dusted off her heavy grey-purple coat.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Thank you, Chrom." She mumbled, rubbing her head. Her hand came back with one of two white pigtails.

Chrom arched an eyebrow. "So you know who I am?"

She furrowed her brows. "No… I just remembered the name. But I don't think I've ever met you. Weird..."

"Maybe it's because she heard milady say your name just moments ago." The third person snarked. The man was clearly a knight from his armor and the steed behind him.

"So what were you doing out in the middle of a field?" Chrom asked, choosing to ignore the remark.

She shrugged. "I'm... not sure on that one either."

"Well then what's your name?"

She took a few moments, digging into her memories but unable to find anything. She shrugged again. "I don't know."

"Hey I've heard of this! It's called amnesia!" Lissa proudly suggested.

"That's a load of pegasus dung. We're to believe you know Milord's name, but not your own?"

The amnesiac turned towards the knight. "But it's true!" The amnesiac insisted.

"But what if it is true, Frederick? We can't just leave her here, alone and in the middle of nowhere. What sorts of Shepherds would we be then?" Chrom added.

"Just the same, Milord, I must emphasize caution. It would be disgraceful to let a wolf within our flock." Frederick replied.

"Right then, we'll take her back to the town to sort this out."

She looked between the two men discussing. "Wait just a moment, don't I get a say in this?" She asked, vexed.

Chrom held his hand up and responded to her question "Peace, friend. I promise we'll hear all you have to say in town."

She simply stood there as the 'Shepherds' departed for the nearby town. Noticing her hesitation, Chrom stopped and turned around."Aren't you coming?"

Snapping out of her hazy thoughts about her unknown past, she ran after them. "Wait for me!"

She joined up with Chrom and they rapidly caught up with the others. The amnesiac's thoughts wandered about the possibilities behind her origin as they silently caught up to the others.

* * *

Three mounts blazed through the path in the forest with two riders each.

"How much further?!" Hugo asked from the back seat.

"We should see it!" Donnel answered, holding his pot helmet tightly.

They exited the forest. The village was on fire.

"Fuck." Chan Sung muttered under his breath.

* * *

The group continued marching through a mildly hilly landscape full of flowing green grass and trees.

"So… What are you going to do with me? Am I going to be a prisoner?" The amnesiac said, breaking the comfortable (except for Frederick) silence.

"You'll be free to go once we confirm that you aren't an enemy of Ylisse." He reassured.

"Who is Ylisse?" She asked, puzzled.

Frederick scoffed from atop his horse. "Have you never heard of the halidom? Someone please pay this actress, she plays quite the fool. Very convincing, especially the furrowed brow."

"Frederick, please." Chrom turned towards the amnesiac. "We are in the Halidom of Ylisse. Our ruler is called Emmeryn and has the title of Exalt. Well, I suppose proper introductions are in order. I'm Chrom, but you already know my name. He's Frederick, The delicate one is Lissa, my little sister."

Aghast at her brother's claim, she stuck out her tongue at him "I am NOT delicate! Please ignore my brother here… He can be a little thick at times" She declared, crossing her arms.

"HEY!" indignantly shouted the man in question

She ignored him. "Anyways, you're really lucky the Shepherds found you first. Bandits would have been a very rude awakening!"

"You tend to sheep in full armor? It's not that hazardous, is it?"

"Heh, it's a dangerous job. Just as Frederick the Wary here." Chrom jokingly answered.

"I shall wear the title with pride. Because god forbid one of us has to show at least a minimum of caution. I am truly sorry stranger. I would like to trust you, but my station obligates me to do otherwise."

"I can understand, someone has to keep an eye out." She acknowledged, nodding in his direction.

Continuing down the cobbled path, they were content to simply watch the mild ylissean scenery slowly pass by.

"My name is Robin! I just remembered! Wait... How do I even know for sure?" Robin thought out loud after a few minutes of surprisingly comfortable silence.

Chrom was about to congratulate her for remembering her own name, but stopped. "Frederick put the lance down. We can discuss it later, we're almost at the-"

"Chrom, the town! Look!" Interrupted Lissa, pointing at the end of the road.

His head snapped around, spotting village being pillaged by bandits. Multiple buildings were on fire, set ablaze by the brigands. There were echoes of far screams reaching their ears.

He didn't hesitate. "Damn it! It's those blasted bandits we've been chasing around the countryside all week! Lissa! Frederick! Let's go!"

"What about her?" questioned Frederick as he urged his steed forward.

"Unless she's on fire too it can wait!" Chrom answered as he ran towards the village.

* * *

Hugo and his group arrived at the western entrance to the village and hopped off their steeds. They put on their earplugs and brandished their weapons.

The captain of the crashed _ISS San Pellegrino _made sure he had a round chambered in his shotgun before he gestured the group to move inside. They slowly walked forward on the wrecked cobblestone path, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

After passing burning houses and the mangled corpses littering the streets, Tristan managed to spot a person further down, looking the other way.

"Someone's alive over there!" The group stopped as the swede pointed them in the right direction.

Hugo readjusted his glasses and saw the shirtless man looking in the opposite direction. "Shit! He's turning around, hide!" He said, finding refuge behind a mostly intact stone wall.

The group immediately followed and managed to avoid detection. They hugged the wall and looked at each other.

The group went into hushed whispers. "Is he one of ours?" Dominic asked among many other questions from the terrans. He looked around, keeping his shotgun close to him.

Donnel took a quick peek around the corner. He shook his head. "He's got an axe an' there's blood smear'd on it. I dun' wanna fancy me chances."

Qihao crouched and swept his weapon from side to side, trying to spot an enemy hiding in a house. "So what's the plan sir?"

The Captain rubbed his chin. "We don't have a choice, really. We're gonna need to have keep going down that road." He answered. "Julien, do you think you can take care of him?"

"I can try." The man answered, flicking his safety off.

"Go for it." Hugo nodded. Julien peeked around the corner, steadying the prototype battle rifle on the wall. He steadied his breath and pulled the trigger.

_**BANG**_

"FUCK!"

"Missed?" Dominic asked, moving himself near the rifleman.

"Well no shit! He's running away!" He answered, lowering his weapon.

"Chase him!" Hugo dashed forwards after the fleeing brigand. The rest of the group followed in his rapid footsteps.

* * *

Robin looked around as she went deeper into the town, spotting overturned market stalls and broken goods laid on the floor. Some of the nearby houses were on fire and she could see blood splatters on the cobblestone floor and on the houses. A woman laid near a doorway, immobile.

After a moment to regain her thoughts, she shook off her disgust and rejoined the three people that were taking a gander at the corpse.

"-ead." Lissa muttered with a sullen look on her face.

Chrom shook her shoulder. "Sister, we're going to stop the brigands and save whoever's left, but we need your help. Can you keep yourself together and lend us your help? Please?" He pleaded.

Frederick spotted Robin arrive as Lissa regained her composure. He stared at her approaching, wary of any sudden movement.

"Why did you follow us?" He emotionlessly asked when she came to a stop.

"I wanted to help? Is that so bad?" She replied, raising an eyebrow.

The knight made to answer, but stopped.

"Frederick, just let her, we need any help we can get." Chrom interrupted, staring back at him.

Lissa turned around. "What can you do?" She asked, leaving the body behind.

Robin searched around in her coat and pulled out a book. "Well… I can use this?" She answered, flipping through it.

"You know magic?"

"I think?" The amnesiac shrugged.

Chrom slowly backed away. "I'm going to stay as far away as possible, then."

"How does this work again?" Robin chanted and held out her palm. Her senses tingled as she felt some static on her hand. Concentrating harder, the electricity coalesced and condensed in her hand. She launched the spell in a random direction, managing to hit a brigand trying to sneak around behind them without even realizing that the man was there.

"Nice shot!" Lissa cheerily commented.

Robin turned towards her result. "Ah, so that's how it works!" She tucked the time away in her coat. "Good to know."

Chrom walked up to the brigand and plunged his sword into the spasming man's heart. "Well that was dangerous."

"Milord, shall we begin cleansing this village of scum?" Frederick asked.

He nodded.

* * *

Hugo turned around the corner. He found four more people waiting for him.

"OSHIT!" He exclaimed, barely deflecting an axe strike to the side with his shotgun. He quickly backpedalled, trying to create some distance away from the muscular axeman attacking him.

Julien held his fire momentarily, unable to find a clear shot on the man trying to murder Hugo. Instead, he snapped his aim towards the others and fired a burst. One shot grazed a swordsman's shoulder, angering him and causing him to charge towards him.

"Ylissean dog! You will regret that!" The swordsman yelled, rapidly closing the distance.

Chan Sung aimed his weapon at the quickly approaching bandit and pulled the trigger. He gritted his teeth as recoil hit him and sent him a step back due to bad footing. Most of the pellets hit center mass on the swordsman, punching through the padded cloth armour and tearing apart his chest and stomach. The corpse fell down and slid to the feet of the korean and canadian.

Without a second spare, Donnel intercepted a strike that would've decapitated Hugo. He then thrust his spear towards the axeman, forcing him a few footsteps back.

"Thanks." Hugo said, squeezing off a shot that went wide. He cursed as he saw the dust kicked up from the missed pellets. At least the ruffian was shocked by the sound the weapon gave off when fired.

* * *

As the chaos of the bloody battle began setting in, Qihao and Dominic unleashed the contents of their shotguns into the fray, killing an axeman as the barrage of pellets slammed into the alleyway. The cacophony of gunfire managed to panic one of the brigands, sending him immediately scampering away.

The sole female brigand in the encounter quickly took out a tome and began chanting. She extended a palm towards Qihao and sent forth a barely visible attack. The eyes of the asian wearing camouflage cargo pants went wide when he saw _something_ towards flying him. He screamed in pain as the attack hit him directly into the chest and sent him sprawling onto the ground.

Dominic jumped back as his friend was hit. "MAGIC?!" He yelled, eyes wide as he realized his comrade might be gravely injured.

* * *

Hugo tried to pump another shotgun shell into the chamber but a dent into the weapon jammed the machinery. Instead, he held the weapon as a club and dashed in.

Meanwhile, Donnel spear was hooked by the axeman and was thrown away to the side.

"DARN IT!" He cursed, warily backing away.

As the axeman focused on the farmer, a buttstock impacted the brigand's face, stunning him for a moment. However, he quickly regained his senses and looked at Hugo with disappointment.

"Is that it?"

* * *

The mage, knowing that they were quickly losing, decided it was a good time to run away. She launched another attack at one of the terrans as she began retreating from combat. The attack went wide, flying past Julien and prompting him to immediately return fire as he deemed her more dangerous than the one targeting Hugo. He crouched and took careful aim with the rifle's simple iron sights.

_**BANG**_

She dropped onto the floor, her puncture wound squirting blood onto the ground. She screamed like a banshee as she desperately tried to crawl away.

Julien re-adjusted his aim and squeezed the trigger three more times.

_**BANG - BANG - BANG**_

* * *

Hugo narrowed his eyebrows, staring back at the imposing figure of the axe wielding bandit. He readjusted his glasses and mustered his most menacing voice. "No. I still have one last option."

"What is it? Yer' gonna die anyways." The axeman replied, tightening the grip on his axe and eyeing his opponent's mouvements carefully. Hugo dashed forwards,

.

.

.

in the other direction.

"RUN!" The blond man yelled, grabbing Donnel's wrist and dragging him along. The farmer looked completely caught off guard and struggled to follow in Hugo's frantic steps.

The brigand scoffed when the duo managed to scramble around a corner. As he thought about chasing them, Dominic suddenly plunged a sword into him from behind. He let the 'recently acquired' weapon go, leaving the surprised ruffian to fall down onto the cobblestone ground.

"That's killing Qihao." Dominic somberly stated, staring down at the body of the brigand with hatred in his eyes.

"You know I'm still alive right?" Said asian nonchalantly commented, still lying on the ground.

Dominic turned around with clear disappointment on his face. "Shut up. You ruined my moment." The scotsman heard Julien and Chan Sung snickering. He shook his head and smiled himself.

"Well we're still alive." Julien pointed out.

Qihao rolled his eyes. "Couldn't be better." He sarcastically replied, rubbing his stinging chest. The feeling of disorientation made him want to puke.

"Quahini you were literally 'blown away' by that mage!" The Scotsman commented, all sense of seriousness gone.

"Fuck off, wanker." The asian half-heartedly flipped the bird at him.

* * *

Robin peeked her head out from her hiding spot behind a merchant's stall. She quickly retreated into cover before any of the brigands could notice her.

"Two axemen and two swordsmen." She whispered to the others. "Hey Frederick? Could you take out the swordsmen if Lissa lends some assistance to you? I think Chrom and I can handle the axemen."

Frederick narrowed his brows but nodded.

"Guess we're going to follow that plan?" Chrom asked.

"Well, does anyone has brighter ideas? No? Then let's go! Each instance we wait might let more people die." Lissa insisted, taking her eyes off a nearby corpse.

Robin peeked around the corner and lobbed a thunderbolt at one of the axemen. It barely missed it's target, alerting the brigand to their location.

"Whoops?"

As the axe came down towards Robin, it was deflected away by Chrom. Her comrade sighed and moved in front of her. The metallic weapons rung as they impacted each other again, sending a shockwave into the arms of the wielders. The brigand recovered first and pressed on, pushing the axe towards Chrom's face.

"Robin, please? Help?" He pleaded, feeling his grip slowly slipping.

"Trying!" She answered, throwing out another thunderbolt.

The bandit sniggered as it went wide. He disengaged momentarily and came back in with an overhead swing. The swordsman parried the blow to the side and tried to counter, but to no avail as the brigand dashed past the attack and buried the axe into Chrom's shoulder. He reeled back and quickly put some distance between them.

Robin prevented the axeman's follow-up by launching a thunderbolt… that missed again. "SERIOUSLY?!" Robin exclaimed in disbelief. Deciding she had enough, she closed in and repeatedly batted the brigand with the tome instead.

Blow after blow, the bandit reeled back, much to the shock of both her target and Chrom. After being forced down onto his knees and be nearly beaten down by something that was definitely _not _supposed to be used as a club, the ruffian managed to get a hold of Robin's throat and held her up. He punched her in the gut with the other hand.

"Is that all? Amateurs!" The axeman mocked, watching her bend over in pain.

Furious, Robin promptly blasted him with thunder magic right in the face. He fell to the ground, spasming. Chrom kneeled beside the two, gripping his sword tighter to cut apart the hand that was slowly choking her without killing her in the process.

Robin coughed heavily when she was finally freed. "Thanks for saving me." She muttered as she was helped back onto her feet.

"That was reckless. Don't do that again." Chrom commented, serious. He then took a closer look at her bloodied neck. "Did I injure you?"

"I think I'll li-" Robin's eyes widened when she saw someone behind him. She quickly flipped her book open and launched a thunderbolt. Before she was done with the incantation, she grabbed Chrom and threw them both to the side as the spell was cast.

The swordsman dropped his weapon as he hit the ground. He then felt a person land on top of him, driving air out of his lungs.

"Hey what was that for?!" Chrom demanded.

"There was someone behind you." She answered, turning her head to the side.

He followed her motion and saw the second axeman spasming on the ground. Realization dawned on him. "Ah. Thank you."

Robin laughed heartily as she turned back and saw the man's embarrassed face. "I guess this makes us even now?"

Chrom looked away as he realized how close their faces were. A pink tinge greeted his cheeks. "I guess?"

"Don't let your guard down next time. That was too close."

"I won't. I promise."

"Did you not tell me something similar earlier?" Robin cheekily pointed out. She laughed again.

"Could you two stop flirting so I could take a look at your wounds?" An annoyed voice demanded.

Blood slowly crept up onto their cheeks when the reality of their compromising positions dawned on them. Chrom and the white haired amnesiac practically flew off of each other.

He coughed awkwardly.

Rolling her eyes, Lissa took her staff and examined the gash on her brother's shoulder. "It doesn't seem too deep." She noted. The cleric began applying healing magic to the wound, slowly closing it.

"Alright you're good!" She chirped, moving on to her next patient.

Frederick dismounted his horse, his polished armour still shining and spotless. "Milord, the brigands have been disposed of." He stated.

"Good work out there. Erm… how long were you watching us?" Chrom awkwardly asked.

The knight sighed. "Milord, if I may be honest, I have witnessed everything."

"Oh." Chrom rubbed his head. "It was an accident."

"Milord, I know. I understand that you have an interest in Robin."

"It's not like that!" The blue haired man insisted.

Frederick rolled his eyes.

While Chrom unsuccessfully tried to convince him otherwise, Lissa finished wiping off the blood on Robin's neck and closing some small cuts. "Thank you." The amnesiac mumbled, rubbing her neck.

"No problem! I'll always be here to help! Besides you saved my brother!" The cleric smiled and patted her shoulder.

After she sighed in happiness as her itch was resolved, Robin looked around and spotted villagers exiting their hiding spots as they made sure the immediate vicinity was clear of bandits. She turned back towards the Shepherds. "Well then, I guess everyone is ready to continue?"

"Of course." Chrom answered.

_**BANG - BANG BANG**_

Robin's head snapped towards the noise. "What was that?"

"Well we are never going to know if we don't get closer!" Chrom answered, taking off in a sprint.

* * *

_**BANG - BANG BANG **__squelch_

The third rifle round struck it's target, piercing the man's kneecap. He screamed as he fell down, his dash to cover interrupted. Even as pain hit his nerves, he kept going, trying to crawl to safety.

_**BANG**_

"Got him!" Dominic cheered, pumping another shell into the chamber.

Donnel swept his vision across the intersection and only found bandits in the form of dead bodies.

"I think that's all of 'em" The farmer noted, putting his spear down.

"Alright good. Let's keep moving then." Hugo ordered, loading more ammunition into his borrowed weapon as he advanced. He decided to not think much about the fact that they only encountered light resistance after the initial fight.

"OW! Fuckin' wanker!" Qihao yelled, a lance a of pain running through him. The Korean man immediately went to support him.

"Are you ok?" Chan Sung asked as his friend's earlier internal injuries acted up again.

"The concussive force probably damaged my internal organs. But I'll live." The asian answered, grimacing in pain as the two shuffled forwards, trying to keep up with the group.

Hugo slowly down and let them catch up. He sighed in annoyance as he saw the Asian's persistence to follow them. "Shouldn't you return home then?"

Qihao shook his head. "Going back is dangerous because we'll get separated. Never split the party." He continued moving forwards despite the pain.

"God damn it." The captain commented but made no move to object his reasoning. He looked around as the group walked through the streets and burned buildings. Hugo shook his head as he passed by the dead bodies of villagers, giving them a silent prayer.

Squinting, Donnel managed to spot fighting further down the road. He quickly approached the blond captain and gestured in the general direction. "Over th'ere capt'n."

"Everyone get to cover!" Hugo immediately ordered.

Most of the group dove behind stalls, boxes and anything they could hide behind. Meanwhile, Chan Sung awkwardly shuffled himself and the other asian into a house.

A brawl was occurring near the center of the church. It was messy, but Donnel could distinguish two main parties by their clothing. One side was fighting with dyed clothing or armour while the other side lacked some shirts and wore red bands on their heads.

"Which side are we on?" Dominic asked from behind a stand.

"Not sure." Hugo answered.

"I think the ones that aren't shirtless." Julien replied.

Donnel squinted further, trying to identify details on the fighters. His eyes widened. "He's right! C'mon!" He sprinted out of cover towards the fight. As he ran, he waved for everyone else to follow.

Hugo shook his head."Fucks sake!" He held Qihao's shotgun tighter as he ran after the farmer.

* * *

"Hey you're getting good at this!" Lissa commented, excitedly watching a thunderbolt sail from Robin's hands and stun a brigand. The ruffian was quickly finished off by Frederick running him through with a spear.

"Thanks. I think I may stick to thunder magic support then." Robin replied, scanning the battlefield for another potential target. Chrom and Frederick were in a fight against some more brigands using melee weapons.

Upon taking a closer look, she discerned the blue haired man dueling with a brigand axeman while Frederick single-handedly fought back three people. Even if the knight was severely outnumbered, he seemed to have no problems dealing with them. He pushed them back by thrusting his spear and managed to catch one in the ribs. Another well aimed thrust finished his target off.

Robin nodded her head in approval and began searching for any stragglers attempting to sneak away. Turning her head around, she saw a young man wielding a spear charge from one of the many roads to the church towards Chrom. Another man chased after the first, although blond and seemingly older.

She cast a thunderbolt at the closest one.

The bolt barely missed but caused the target to stumble and fall. Immediately after, the blond man crouched beside the fallen person and aimed a black tube at her.

Once she noticed their clothing and the young man's pot helmet, Robin interrupted her next cast when she thought that they might have been villagers defending their home. She mentally berated herself for not thinking about that.

The fallen person with a pot helmet said something to the blond man, prompting him to lower the thing he was holding.

"Huh?" Lissa scratched her head. "What are they doing? Maybe they aren't bandits?"

"They might be." She awkwardly replied, lowering her thunder tome.

"BROTHER!" The young cleric called out.

"Yes? I'm kind of in the middle of a fight right now!"Chrom replied, parrying a horizontal swing and counter-attacking with his own.

"Do the people over there look like bandits?"

"Give me a moment!" The swordsman dashed, swinging his sword downwards.

Finally deciding to help him with his fight that should have ended long ago, Robin launched a thunderbolt at the axeman. It struck true, hitting the brigand and paralysing him. However, Chrom did not attempt to finish him off, letting his opponent recover from the shock.

"What are you doing?!" She asked, dumfounded.

"_We're having a manly duel here you know!" _Both men replied in sync.

The ruffian continued, staring at her with fury in his eyes. "HOW DO YOU INTERRUPT US! I'll HAVE YOU KNOW I AM THE MOST BRIGANDY BRIGA-"

_**BONK**_

Lissa stood beside the axeman's fallen body. She whistled innocently and quickly put her staff behind her.

Chrom sighed in disappointment. Then, he noticed the newcomers walking towards him. To him, they did not seem dangerous due to their odd equipment, especially the one with the pot helmet. He decided to sheath his sword as he approached them as a sign of peace.

Meanwhile, Frederick remained stoic as ever as he checked his spear and his still pristine armour, having finished off the last of the three brigands he had to fight highhandedly.

"Hello there." The leader of the Shepherds waved.

"Milord!" The one with the pot helmet saluted, earning himself a few odd looks from his comrades. Glances and muttering was exchanged between the terrans as they grouped to the side. Hugo yelled something, causing two more people to join them from their hiding place in a house.

"Are you inhabitants of this village?" Frederick asked.

"Nah, Milord, we heard of a brigand attack n' came here as fast as we could." Donnel towards the west. "We live in the village just beyond, sir. "

"Ah." Chrom pretended to know where the farmer meant. He felt he could be excused for being unable to track all the villages anyways. "What is your name?"

"Donny. Er, that is, Donnel. ...Your Majestyful."

"And who are your compatriots?"

"Milord, this is Capt'n Hugo, the leader of the group."

The blond man extended a hand. "Nice to meet you."

Chrom shook it thoroughly. "You too. So you lead a band of mercenaries?"

"Mercenary is a crude term, but yes. We are also looking for more work."

"Would you like to go to the capital to search?" He offered.

"Sure I guess." Hugo put a hand on his chin. "We do need more funds."

An elderly man slowly walked up to the group as others villagers creeped onto the street after the raid being declared over. "Milord! Please, we would gladly host a feast in your honor for having your blessing on this humble village."

"Your offer is generous, but we are required to depart for the capital with haste, thus we have to refuse." Frederick replied, bowing his head.

"I'll take medium well, dark meat and - Wait what we're not staying here? But it's nearly dark!" Lissa pointed towards the conveniently dimming sky.

"We shall live off the land as our ancestors did. Forage and hunt to sustain ourselves. I believe you mentioned you would be "Getting used to this"?" The knight snarked.

Lissa crossed her arms and pouted, not wanting to meet anyone's eyes until she spotted Qihao using Chan Sung as a support. "Is he wounded?"

"Ye. He got hit by somethin'." Donnel answered.

As Chrom began discussing with Robin and Frederick about what they would do with the unconscious bandit, the cleric pointed her staff towards the asian and slowly mended his internal wounds. He grimaced but otherwise refrained from talking as the process continued. The other terrans, having grouped around them, observed the slow pouring of healing magic into the Asian's injuries.

"You're fixed!" She happily declared.

_English_

"That fucking hurt." Qihao commented, rubbing his chest as he separated himself from his stand. He made a few motions with his limbs to test for any problems but found none.

"What just happened?" Julien asked, poking the asian engineer with the butt of his rifle.

The man irritatedly pushed the weapon away. "Well my insides don't feel completely scrambled anymore, but it fucking hurts."

"Wait so she made it worse?" Hugo questioned, scratching his head.

"Maybe not. I feel better now. It might be pain from the repairs to my organs."

"That's really handy." Dominic took a closer look at the staff.

"Well this is… interesting." The blond man commented.

_Ylissean_

"I'm gonna return home. Ma'll be angry if I don't go home." Donnel remembered. "I'll see ya!"

_English_

"Qihao. The ship will be under your command while I'm gone, got it?" Hugo ordered.

"Yes sir." The asian saluted.

"Right then, I'll see ya sometime soon."

They quickly exchanged goodbyes and went on their way to retrieve their mount.

"So… What now?" Chan Sung asked when the two were out of sight.

"We're gonna go to the capital." Hugo sighed, placing his hands on his sides.

The short scotsman put his arms up, excitement dripping from his expression. "WOO ROAD TRIP!"

"Dominic it isn't a road trip. We're walking." Julien commented.

The short scot repeated his previous motion. "WOO HIKING TRIP!"

Hugo pinched his nose. "Dominic it isn't a hike either."

Lissa looked between them confusedly, unable to understand their alien language.

* * *

Dominic lied on the ground, gazing at the night sky dotted with millions of distant stars. Each dot seemed so close yet so far to him. He thought about how quickly everything changed, how humanity could travel between them. For him, even if he were a crew member of the _ISS San Pellegrino_, he never had a real chance to sit down and relax stargazing.

Then suddenly, a wild Lissa appeared.

"What'cha looking at?" She asked, looking down at him.

"_Hey pass me another piece of mauler meat!" _Her brother shouted from the campfire.

"I'm looking at you since you're blocking my view." He casually answered, trying to brush her away.

"Oh sorry." She stepped aside and sat down beside him. "What's so interesting about them?"

"_Frederick! Come on! Eat some, it's delicious! Even Garrick is loving it!"_

"Dominic pointed towards the sky. Look at them. Do you see the differences?"

"Some are brighter and some are dimmer. They also have different colours."

"_No no no! I've had quite a big lunch! I am not hungry!" _

"Do you think there's life out there?"

"Life? On the stars?"

"_Oh totally! I remember the fact that we did not eat lunch!"_

"No, worlds like this one. Where there's people."

She turned her eyes up and gazed at the night sky. "I don't think so. But maybe? I mean, you never know." She turned her head towards him. "Did you come here to escape those barbarians?"

"_Robin! Watch it! You're eating like an animal!" _Hugo commented.

"Huh?" Dominic turned his head towards her.

Lissa took a breath and rephrased."Did you come because you don't like mauler meat?"

"What's a mauler again?" He asked, perplexed.

"_Bhut it'sh so ghooood~" _

"Big scary monster with brown fur and four legs. Never seen one?"

"Well, maybe I did." His mind went to that one time where the group went camping. "I'm kinda hungry actually." He picked himself up and dusted off his pants.

"Wanna go hunting? I don't want to eat something that tastes worse than old boots!" She made a sound of disgust as she thought about it.

Dominic shrugged and went to pick up his weapon. "Eh sure, what could go wrong."

"Big Brother we're going hunting! I'll see you later!" She waved.

"_What, you don't want mauler meat?"_ Chrom asked, waving a chunk of meat.

"Blerhg! NO! How do you eat something that smells worse than old boots!" She spat.

"Suit yourself! And remember to stay safe!" He shouted back.

"Milord, I shall accompany her." Frederick said.

"Sure." Chrom took another bite.

"Right, I'm gonna go sleep." Robin yawned as she stretched herself.

"Good night." Hugo waved as she left to find a suitable spot to rest.

Garrick, the bandit they captured at the town, grinned. The fur cloak coat that hung on his shoulders and exposed his chest to the air was pulled in around him. "Aight, since it's now jus' us lads…"

* * *

_Some time later..._

Hugo stretched his body, working out the aching joints. The others were already asleep near the trees.

Chrom rubbed his chin. "I'm thinking of hiring Robin."

"Huh?" The blond man turned towards him.

"She helped us fight off the brigands and had a good sense of battle. I'm thinking of making her our tactician."

"What's a tactician?"

"Someone that tells people what to do in a fight. You don't come from these parts?" He asked after a pause.

"How'd you guess?" Hugo sat back down.

"Your accent's funny. I've never heard one like that. Where do you guys come from?"

"A land far away…" They looked up towards the starlit sky.

"I wonder what language you speak then?"

"French and english." Hugo said.

"May you teach me about one of them at some point?"

"English, maybe. Since it's easier."

The conversation drifted off as the fatigue from their day affected them more and more.

"Something feels off." Chrom said suddenly, yawning.

"What?" The blond man arched an eyebrow as slowly he stood up.

"They should have returned by now."

"Do you think they got lost?"

Chrom looked around in the dim moonlight. "Maybe that happened. Let's go look for them."

"Alright then." Hugo picked up his borrowed shotgun and inserted a few shells into it.

* * *

AN: Excuse the long time between chapters, I want to take time to make them well-made and I am a newbie writer.


	4. Otherworldly (Chapter 3)

_Tap Tap Tap_

_Tap Tap Tap_

"_This is the only hope left. Go." _

_A blue portal opened._

"Why did it come to this…" She grimly thought out loud, stopping before it. Groans and rapid footsteps were heard from behind them.

"A series of unfortunate events." A mage replied, throwing a rock into the portal to test it. It went through and disappeared. Declaring it safe, he and a few others entered it.

Meanwhile, she hesitated, watching the last of her friends and family disappear. They had already lost so much.

"We have little time left! The Risen are closing in quickly! " Their tactician urged.

"Sis! What are we waiting for? Let's go!" A pegasus rider added, shaking her sister's shoulder.

"Right." Lucina gripped her Falchion tighter and slowly inched forwards, forcing her shaking legs to move.

"Come on!" The former princess yelled as she hit liquid-like resistance. Holding her breath, she urged herself towards another time. A time where the Fell Dragon was still sealed.

* * *

Frederick looked at the short man laughing. He looked at Lissa somehow stuck between three trees. He looked back at the still-laughing man. He sighed.

"Milady, do you need aid?" He asked again.

"No, no! I'm fine Frederick! I can do this myself!" Lissa replied, trying and failing repeatedly to unwedge the cage of her dress. She held a branch to haul herself out but slipped, causing the tree to 'slap' her.

However, that did not deter her from trying again. And again. And again. Each time with less success than the last. Even to him, it looked ridiculous.

He looked back at the short man, who wheezed and steadied himself using a tree.

He asked himself about the humor of the situation. However, he would never openly declare his conclusion in front of her.

* * *

"So how long have you been a mercenary for?" Chrom asked, brushing a branch aside as they searched further into the forest.

"A few years I believe. We've been going around, completing contracts and all that." Hugo replied, carefully stepping around the roots of a tree. What he said wasn't technically a lie; simply that they only took delivery contracts when the _ISS San Pellegrino_ was still in service.

"We could use more men in our group, would you be interested in being hired?"

The blond man paused for a moment. He rubbed his chin. "Well, it depends on the pay and conditions."

"I guess we could talk about those when we arrive at the capital." Chrom mused. He examined the ground and nearby foliage, hoping to find some clue of his sister, Frederick or the shorty.

Hugo squinted and readjusted his glasses. He couldn't see further than a few dozen meters. "Should we stop searching? They might have hid themselves somewhere for the night."

He stopped and turned around. "Perhaps. Let's search for some more time and we will return to the camp."

"Sur-" The blond man felt something touch his back. "_-OH HOLY SHIT!"_

Chrom immediately unsheathed Falchion upon hearing the yell of panic. Hugo turned around, an expression of surprise on his face as he scrambled to draw his own weapon.

They saw a pale man. He wore a denim shirt and brown pants. The ghostly person looked at them and shrugged with a smile. "Hey guys."

Hugo recognised the person immediately. He lowered his weapon. "_Jesus Christ_, Julien! Don't just sneak up on us like that."

Julien tried to cover up his snicker. "Sorry."

Chrom released a tense breath. He put his weapon away and crossed his arms. "You nearly made me stab you. How long were you following us for?"

He shrugged. He didn't bother to tell him he was terrible at ylissean and could only comprehend part of the sentence. It felt quite obvious, to him and Hugo at least.

"Forget it." Hugo sighed. "Let's just find the others before something goes wrong."

"Agreed." Chrom said, stepping over a fallen log to continue searching.

_**Rumble Rumble Rumble**_

The sudden trembling of the ground caused him to fall down onto the wood and trip further until he hit dirt. Birds took sudden flight and animals began running amok, as if the forest was suddenly stirred to life by the quake.

"Crap!" Hugo uttered, trying to keep himself from falling down. His friend fared worse, falling onto his back and dropping his rifle.

Far off in the distance, he spotted something erupt from the ground. Hugo and Chrom both managed to steady themselves in time to spot multiple bright orange-red entities dot the night sky.

"What in Naga's name is that?" Chrom wondered, staring at the quickly moving objects.

"_Please tell me it's not what I think it is._" Hugo said, nervousness in his voice. He squinted further, finding that his initial thought was correct. A frown marred his face. His legs were barely able to keep him standing as the ground shook violently.

Julien came to the same realization when he picked himself back up. He threw his arms out. "_WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE A FUCKING VOLCANO!"_

"RUN!" Hugo roughly dragged Chrom in the other direction, taking off in a sprint.

Julien fled alongside the two, snatching his weapon as he bolted away from the lava and debris that was slowly catching up to them.

* * *

Dominic watched Lissa explore the small fort from beside a tree. Frederick stood close by, standing guard.

The scotsman smiled when he saw the young cleric proudly wave a sword she found in the air. Even if she probably wouldn't see him, he raised a thumb up to signal his approval.

Lissa beamed. Then she ducked back into the fort.

"What was the meaning of that gesture?" Frederick demanded.

"Oh, it means approval." He answered, shrugging. The knight narrowed his eyes slightly but made no further comment.

Dominic linked his hands behind his head and began humming a tune. They stayed watching Lissa further explore the small bits of ruins there for a minute until Frederick approached him.

"What do you think of milady?" He suddenly asked.

"She seems to be a nice kid." The scotsman simply stated.

Frederick scrutinized his face for anything that would betray ulterior intentions. "Nothing else?"

He laughed. "Frederick, I'm 38! I have a wife!"

"Oh so just- Hold on, what did you say?!" He sputtered, breaking down his normally stoic exterior.

"Thirty-Eight cycles old and happily married."

The knight looked at short scotsman accusingly.

"I'm serious!"

"You do not look that old." Frederick pointed out.

"Whaddya mean?!"

"You are too short to be of age."

Dominic shook his head and sighed. "_Godamnit_." He muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" The knight inquired, narrowing his eyes. He never heard of the language these 'Mercenaries' used.

_**Rumble Rumble Rumble**_

Frederick easily managed to stay steady unlike the scotsman. He picked up the fallen Dominic under his arm and marched through the unstable terrain, towards the fort. His thoughts were focused on Lissa's safety. He ignored the tree falling beside him, brushing away the trembling branches with his free arm as he pushed on.

"Thanks." Dominic muttered in amazement of the knight continuing on, unbothered by the chaos.

The scotsman could only make out small bits of detail from the night, however that changed in an instant when magma slammed beyond the defensive structure. The light from the hot liquid lit up the area, permitting him to see the small fort clearly. The stone structure was slowly crumbling.

Frederick kicked the gate off its hinges as he barged in, looking around in concern. He spotted Lissa helplessly flopping around on the ground as it shook. The knight quickly picked her up and put her in the safety of under his other arm, much to her complaining about "rough handling".

As walls began falling down, having long lost all structural integrity from the time spent rotting in the forest, Frederick bolted out of there with two relatively small people under each arm.

"Why did this have to happen?" Dominic complained from the right arm.

"I have to tend to the safety of my liege." The knight answered, stopping in the middle of a grove. "We can ask ourselves the reasons behind this later."

Lissa huffed and tried to wiggle out of Frederick's grasp. "Look! I'm fine! No cuts, no injuries, nothing!"

"What about that bruise on your forehead?" Dominic pointed out.

"What bruise?" She put her hand on that spot. The stinging made itself much more apparent all of a sudden. "OW!"

Frederick put the two smaller people down. "Milady, here." He handed Lissa a jar that he took from the pouch on his hip.

She coughed as she put the container aside after taking a drink. She wiped her mouth with her arm. "Ah~ That's better." The cleric pronounced, feeling the pain numbing.

"What's that thing?" The scotsman sat down on the grassy floor.

"A vulnerary. It only numbs the pain." She answered, picking up her staff. "Are you injured perchance?"

"I'm fine. I got carried by Frederick. He might have an injury though." He pointed towards the knight.

He immediately waved her off. "Milady, I assure you, I am fine."

"Well then, let's go back before brother and Robin freaks about about us missing." She declared, helping Dominic get up.

* * *

Hugo forced his tired legs to continue running through the forest that was currently on fire. Julien fared not much better, panting heavily and sweating profusely. Chrom trailed behind them slightly, his metallic boots less suited to running.

They vaulted over a fallen log in their haste to flee away from the eruption. As they moved away from it, a human-sized piece of debris came from the sky and slammed into the log, causing it to disintegrate in a shower of wood splinters.

Julien turned his head around momentarily. "_HOLY SHIT!"_ He screamed as he felt one hit his neck. He ignored the sudden sting of pain to dodge another, much bigger piece of highly dangerous wood that was barrelling towards him. He swerved to the left and let it fly past him.

"_Jesus!"_ Hugo yelled when he saw the wood large splinter pierce a tree from end to end.

Chrom narrowed his eyes. He could make out a stone structure some distance away. "Looks like some shelter ahead of us!"

* * *

Frederick looked up. "Milady?"

Lissa turned around. "Yes?"

"Do you see that object floating in the sky?" He pointed to the blue eye in the sky with ice-like crystals and a ring of runes surrounding it. He was bewildered of what he saw. "And the creatures that are falling out of it?"

Dominic looked up. His jaw fell to his feet, but that wasn't saying much. "How did we miss that?!"

Lissa shook away her surprise. "Maybe it just appeared?" She hypothesized, looking at the dark humanoid creatures that were slowing picking themselves back up. Their glowing red eyes made her shiver in fear. "What are those things?"

"Stay back." Frederick took his spear from his back.

"_Crap,_ I lost my shotgun!" The scotsman slapped his forehead, realizing that he dropped it when the earthquake hit.

The creatures looked towards them. Now apparent from the lava-based lighting behind them, they were hostile. In fact, they were charging towards them with supernatural speed, weapons raised right that instant.

Frederick whistled.

The knight's mount trotted by, dropping the firearm in front of them. Understanding to avoid getting in the way, it quickly retreated behind them.

"Thanks!" Dominic muttered, immediately picking up the weapon and taking aim. He flicked the safety off and took aim at the target on his right.

_**BANG**_

One of the creatures had their charge interrupted when buckshot slammed into it's left arm, ripping the limb off it's body. It turned it's glowing eyes towards the scotsman and snarled.

Frederick snapped his eyes onto the scotsman beside him, surprised by the loud noise and bright flash coming from the weapon.

The moment nearly cost him as the other of the unknown humanoids lunged in with it's sword, intent on decapitating the man. He deflected it with his arm, the armor reducing the blow as he was knocked back a step.

He regained his balance and thrust his spear forwards and through the creature. Seemingly completely unfazed or unaware of the weapon lodged inside it, it continued attempting to strike the knight.

The thing _howled_ demonically as the man swung his spear around, trying to shake it off the weapon.

Lissa backed away fearfully as she watched it being thrown around. The monster swung it's sword around wildly, clipping the cleric's arm in a lucky swing.

Frederick heard her shriek of pain and threw his weapon away, pinning the creature onto a tree.

_**BANG**_

The other one staggered as more buckshot slammed into it, stopping it in its tracks. However, it did not die or bleed, continuing it's stare directly into Dominic's eyes with glowing red orbs. The scotsman grimaced in return and loaded another shell.

"How is it still alive!?" He complained.

Out of the corner of his eye, Frederick noticed a human form drop out of the portal. He prayed to Naga that it was not another of those creatures.

The person unsheathed an ornate and oddly familiar blade before decapitating the creature stuck on his spear.

Frederick watched the dark 'creature' turn into mist. He narrowed his eyes when all traces of the creature faded within the night.

As first turned into mist, the other creature managed to close in the final few meters of its charge, priming a diagonal swing. Dominic dove to the side, causing it to hit the spot where he was a moment ago. He turned around and saw the creature slowly approach him, axe raised.

He raised his weapon and squeezed the trigger. It wouldn't budge. "CRAP!"

The scotsman frantically examined his weapon to try to find the source of the malfunction. Then, he froze when he saw the axe streak towards him. Panic gripped his heart as he realized how jagged the weapon was.

The swing was intercepted by a blade. The mysterious swordsman loomed over him, straining to protect him from the axe.

Dominic quickly rolled out of the way and picked himself back up. He lunged forwards with a swing of his buttstock, connecting the attack on the 'head' of the creature. The red-eyed monster was forced back a step, letting the swordsman go on the offensive.

It snarled back at him.

Their mysterious ally then dispatched the monster by knocking aside the axe and swiftly cleaving the head off. The fiend dissolved similarly to its brethren.

"Thanks." The scotsman sighed in relief, lowering his shotgun and taking a rest on the soft ground. He began examining his weapon in the surprisingly bright glow of the nearby lava puddle.

Lissa took a deep breath, trying to stabilize her shaking legs. "Anyone wounded?"

She took a sigh of relief when she didn't get a positive answer.

"Who are you?" She asked the newcomer.

The swordsman did not reply, ignoring the question, and darted away as though compelled to another cause.

Frederick swept his eyes around, finding more of the creatures a small distance away. More of the dark humanoid creatures were beginning to notice their existence, their ominous red eyes betraying their intentions.

"There seems to be more of those deathly creatures." He said, picking up his lance.

"Aw, come on!" Dominic complained as he shook off the dirt that jammed the breech mechanism.

* * *

Hugo sighed in relief. "That was close." He sat down on a pile of stone that formerly formed part of the wall of the fort.

"Agreed. " Panted Chrom. He took a rest on the dirt floor.

Julien exhaled a deep breath and looked up. "_Hey why are there portals?" _

The former captain of the _ISS San Pellegrino_ turned his head in the same direction. "When did these appear?"

"I think they did a few moments ago. What are they?" The blue-haired man narrowed his eyes when he saw the liquid and surrounding runes in the sky. Then, it closed in on itself, winking out of existence.

"Uh, I don't know the word in ylissean for that thing." Hugo awkwardly replied. "My knowledge doesn't go too far."

_**BANG**_

Everyone snapped their heads towards the direction of the sound. Julien hauled himself up the wall with surprising agility. He squinted towards the source. "_I think I can see Dominic and the dude with a horse!_"

"He sees the others we were searching for earlier." Hugo relayed.

Chrom's eyes widened. "Oh!. Are they in trouble?"

"_AJ! Do they need help?!"_ The blond man shouted.

_**BANG**_

Julien looked into the distance for another second before he acted. He brandished his rifle and aimed. Hesitating after a moment, he lowered it. "Well no shit! And I don't have a good shot!"

"_What are they fighting?"_ He asked instead.

"_I dunno!"_

Hugo cursed. He reworded the situation in ylissean for Chrom, who nodded and took out his own weapon.

"We need to get to them quickly. Who knows what trouble may have befallen them?" The swordsman pointed out.

"Right. _Julien, we're gonna be back in a bit. Stay here and keep an eye out for things."_

"Got it!" The man replied, steadying his gun on the little wall remaining

The forward party composed of Hugo and Chrom moved towards the people they were searching for, running past tall trees and still-dangerous lava that had landed in the area earlier.

* * *

Hugo began trailing behind as they continued further. "Are you alright?" Chrom asked, reducing his speed to match.

"Tired." _Pant_ "But alriAIIGTH ." He replied, nearly tripping himself on the roots of a tree. The sudden stagger from his foot getting caught slowed him down further.

"I think you are less than alright."

Hugo bit back his reply, deciding that talking when out of breath would only make it worse.

"I shall go ahead and meet up with them then." He began picking up his pace.

"Wait!" Chrom turned around. "For god's sake," _Pant_ "wait for me!" Hugo exclaimed.

"But they may be in deep trouble by now! My sister can't even defend herself!"

"They _Pant_ will be fine! She's with Dominic and Fred! Trust in your friend a little!"

He hesitated for a moment. To be fair to his sister, she was turning into an adult and had Frederick with her. She could handle herself, probably. He acquiesced. "Fine. We'll wait a minute to recover."

Hugo immediately sat down under a tree and took a deep breath. He exhaled in satisfaction.

Chrom shook his head.

* * *

Julien stared down his weapon's crude iron sights. He wished deeply he had something better, like a proper scope. But the engineering guys said they didn't have any way to make them.

And that was how he was stuck, aiming his weapon but forced to hold his fire, lest he waste the precious little ammunition he had for the powerful battle rifle because of terrible iron sights.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw a familiar face squat next to him.

"Ey b0ss." Chan Sung called.

"Hey Channy." Assured that there wasn't anyone that was trying to kill him, Julien returned to the iron sights. "When did you get here?"

"Just a few moments ago. We got woken up by that white haired woman because you guys were missing."

"Ah."

"By the way, what's that piece of wood on your neck?"

"I got hit by a splinter when we were running away. The others are over there by the way." He pointed far south.

"Are you gonna be ok?"

"Should be." Julien lightly shoved his friend with a single arm. "Go ahead and join them."

"Ok then." Chan Sung hopped off the wall and rejoined the two others waiting for him.

The rifleman watched them slowly disappear into the cover of the forest. The dark green leaves masking their presence within the woods. He turned his attention towards the distance, where he last saw Dominic fighting. The place was lit up by lava and he could spot some shadows move towards them.

He took aim: Bullet trajectory, target speed, distance, timing danced within his head from the times he played simulation games, all the knowledge now suddenly useful to him.

Breathe in, breathe out.

_Click_

He flipped his weapon over. Something had jammed the weapon. He cursed.

* * *

Chrom spotted Frederick, the armour of the knight reflecting the glow of the lava. He waved, trying to get the man's attention. However, he received no reply, not even a glance in his direction.

Upon closer inspection, the knight was focusing on something in front of him.

_**BANG**_

"What in Naga's name was that!?" Chrom jumped from the volume of the noise. A flash of light erupted nearby, causing Frederick to snap his head in his direction. The knight's horse neighed in protest as the sound of the weapon grated it's ears.

"A firearm!" He heard Hugo reply from behind him. The blond man readjusted his glasses and stopped beside him. "HEY DOMINIC! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" He yelled.

A barely visible tuft of brown hair appeared from behind Frederick. "Something's trying to kill us! They look kinda like zombies but with glowing eyes!" The scotsman replied.

"Got it!"

Chrom raised an eyebrow. "What does 'zombie' mean?"

Hugo began moving at a faster pace towards them. "An undead human! Look I'll explain later, ok?" He raised his weapon and began sweeping it around, looking for a target.

The swordsman narrowed his eyes, trying to see in the slowly dimming light of the nearby lava puddle. He spotted a pair of glowing eyes staring back at him. The sight of the unnatural glow sent a shiver down his spine as he tried to discern the shape of the creature.

It charged towards Chrom with a damaged sword held up. He put his Falchion in front of him as he began guessing where the thing would strike with the built up momentum.

A loud thunder suddenly cracked from beside him with a flash of light. He snapped his head around, expecting a threat from beside him but only found Hugo pointing his weapon towards the creature. The 'gun' had a tiny trail of smoke coming out the front.

Deciding to ask about the loud weapon later, he turned his head back towards the creature and saw it stagger, as if an invisible hammer had smashed into it.

Then Chrom heard another crack of thunder, this time from where Frederick was. Another invisible hammer hit the creature again, this time blowing off a leg and sending it tumbling onto the ground.

"Dominic! Nice shot!" Hugo yelled from beside him.

Frederick regained control of his steed and managed to make it move close enough to the downed monster. He drew his spear and stabbed through the head in one swift pass.

Chrom watched it turn into mist. "Is this normal?"

"Definitely not." The knight answered, staring down another creature that was steadily approaching him. He turned his head towards Dominic momentarily. "Sir, if you would please avoid scaring my mount."

Dominic nodded, backing off towards Lissa as Frederick moved to intercept the next monster.

Hugo decided to group up with his friend while Chrom joined the knight. The blond man saw Lissa slowly back away from them, massaging her ears. He then turned towards the short scot as he reloaded his weapon. "Our weapons are not that loud, are they?"

"Ow. What did you say?" She winced slightly and lent an ear.

He shook his head. "You know what nevermind." He pulled out a pair of spare earplugs from his pockets.

Hugo suddenly heard a clang behind him, signaling the unknown creatures were upon Chrom and Frederick already. He tossed the earplugs to Dominic, who received them on the face.

"Hey!" The scotsman complained, almost falling down while trying to catch them.

"Help her put those on. The others are gonna need help." He ordered in english as he moved towards the blue haired man and his companion.

He heard Dominic mutter a "_Why me?"_ as he left them.

* * *

Julien could only loudly curse as he tried to pull the charging handle and eject the round. Qihao had told him that the weapon was a prototype and he should carry a back-up weapon, but with everyone else armed with firearms too, he felt it wasn't going to be a problem.

Now, he felt that decision is biting him in the back. There was a gallop coming this way and he had no weapon to defend himself with. He knew that Frederick was with Dominic so it couldn't be him.

As the gallops urged closer, he brandished his rifle and hopped off his high ground to hide. Where he was, the light of the lava did not reach much so he could simply wait for the threat to pass by.

Estimating the time it would take for the person to arrive, he began climbing a tree for cover. As he hauled himself up one branch at a time, he saw a pair of glowing red orbs stare at him. He then noticed that the eyes were getting closer.

"_Shit."_ He silently muttered, quickening his pace.

When he was at a suitable height, he turned back to see whatever was pursuing him. He saw a dark human form wearing some light leather and mail armor with a petrified face. The monster snarled and began climbing the tree.

"OHSHITOHSHITOSHIT!"

Julien began searching frantically for somewhere else to go. There were trees nearby but it was extremely risky to try to jump around in the dark. Plus, there was that galloping again.

He turned back again and saw it already half-way up the tree. His eyes bulged as he realized how much time he had left to contemplate.

He screamed in horror as it suddenly lunged for him with unnatural speed.

"AHHHHH!"

With his panicking mind somehow managing to stay coherent despite the terrible situation he was in, he jumped to another branch and towards a nearby tree.

'It' managed to grip the place where he was on a moment ago and dangled there. Once Julien got eye contact again he continued his screaming as he saw the monster fling itself up on the branch.

He looked at the next tree. A two meter jump from a tree without a run-up and with a useless gun that weighed him down. He looked back at the monster again, and regretted it immediately. His screams filled the air as he suddenly made the jump.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Julien felt his hands grip the tree branch and sighed in relief. Then, he remembered there was a monster chasing him. He cursed as he caught a glimpse of it moving towards him. With his body dangling from the tree branch and slowly losing his grip, he had to decide between falling down from a tall tree or waiting to see if the creature misses its jump.

Luckily, he didn't have to.

Something hit the monster right before it lunged towards him. It was thrown off its path and began falling down to the ground, leaving Julien unscathed. It landed somewhere with a 'thump'.

The man felt relieved, thinking it was Frederick that came to save him.

"Why hello there! You do seem to be a precarious position, thus I rushed to your aid in your time of dire need. You can thank me, the great Virion, by calling me the 'Archest of archers'".

Even if he didn't understand what was said, he was certain it wasn't Frederick and also sure his nerves were getting grated.

"Oh shut up! Don't you see he's about to fall?" Another said, with a crude female voice, he noticed.

* * *

Chrom blocked the axe swing, wincing in pain as his arms absorbed the impact. He shoved his Falchion to the side, dragging along the creature's weapon and forcing it away. Surging to the side, he swung his sword as he passed by and struck the front of his opponent. The blade dug a gash but the absence of a reaction on the creature's face told him he didn't do much damage.

The glowing red eyes stared back at him as the axe came back around for a horizontal counter-attack. The man quickly dashed inside the guard of the creature, knowing it was too late to dodge or parry properly.

The handle still hurt a lot when it hit him on the side and knocked the wind out of him, but it was better than outright dying.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled his sword back and shoved it into the creature's chest. Once, Twice, Thrice. The awkward position he was in did not allow much else.

"Die damn it!" He yelled into the face with glowing red eyes.

In response, the monster headbutted him and sent him reeling back. It followed up with a punch to his gut.

"Argh!" Chrom was quickly pulled back by Hugo. His head was spinning like crazy.

He heard the distinctive explosion of gunfire before he opened his eyes again. The creature reeled back, but was still 'alive' despite the clear perforations in it's chest. After a moment, it regained it's stability and dashed towards them.

"How do we kill these things?!" The blond man asked as he pumped another shell into the chamber when he realized it was still alive.

Chrom shook off the disorientation and quickly rejoined the fight. "I would like to know too!" He yelled, knocking the head of the axe aside as the creature tried to shove it's weapon into the blond man.

He followed up with a vicious slash to it's throat, decapitating it. The corpse fell down and turned into mist, leaving behind only the worn-out axe.

Hugo's eyes widened in realization. "Guys aim for the head!"

"Understood!" Frederick replied, stabbing his spear through the skull of another of the monsters.

"Alright guys I'm back!" Dominic said, having rearmed his weapon and given Lissa earplugs.

"Good! More of them are coming!" Chrom called out, pointing towards a trio of dark humanoid forms.

The scotsman and canadian raised their weapons, both taking aim at the closest target.

Frederick and Chrom moved themselves next to the two terrans, ready to intercept anything that got too close.

In the background, Lissa hid behind a tree.

Hugo unloaded buckshot first, striking his target in the chest and staggering it. His friend followed up by landing his pellets on the face and sending it tumbling back into mist.

"Nice." The former captain of the _ISS San Pellegrino_ congratulated.

An arrow flew from the slowest of the 'zombies', who's armament was now obvious. The projectile struck the blond man in the chest, the surprise attack sending him towards the floor.

Chrom's eyes widened as he realized they could use bows. "They can use bows!" He exclaimed.

"I can see that!" Dominic replied. He began dragging his fallen buddy away to put him in cover. An arrow zipped past him as he managed to get behind one of the larger trees.

"Ow. What hit me?" He heard Hugo asked through gritted teeth. The blond man opened his eyes and saw the arrow sticking out of his chest. There was blood pooling around the broad tip. "Oh. Fuck."

"Lissa! Someone's wounded!" Chrom shouted from behind another tree.

"Coming!"

"Milord, we need to advance. That archer is going to simply continue firing arrows at us." Frederick said, thrusting his spear at the other melee monster. He caught it on the shoulder and made it drop it's sword. With a grunt of exertion, he ripped out his weapon and stabbed it in the head.

Lissa ducked near Hugo and pulled out the arrow. "Ow!" She took her staff and began using her healing magic. "You'll be fine."

"Hey that's a bad idea! You're gonna get shot as you get close!" Hugo shouted, noticing Chrom about to charge forward.

"What do we do then?!" He replied, taking cover behind a tree when an arrow barely missed his shoulder.

"Frederick! Flank around it with your horse! We'll distract it." Another voice said from behind them. A bolt of electricity sailing into the knight's opponent made him remember the person behind the voice.

"Robin! I'm glad you were not injured." Chrom called.

"I just noticed those things. There weren't any on our way here." She recalled, taking cover beside the man. Garrick and Chan Sung both moved behind a fallen tree trunk for cover.

"It is because they fell out of the sky." Frederick answered before he took off with his horse.

She glanced in his direction as he disappeared into a thicker part of the forest. "Uh… I'll ask later about the details, I guess." Robin quickly peeked out and launched her magic at the target. She ducked back, avoiding an arrow that flew for her skull. "Help me keep it distracted!"

Dominic blindly fired with his shotgun, using the bright muzzle flash to attract attention to himself. An arrow answered his call.

"HIYAAAA!"

Robin turned towards the yell, finding Garrick in the middle of throwing an axe towards the archer. She gave him a funny look.

He stared back, axe in flight. "What?"

"You threw your weapon?"

The bandit pulled out another axe from under his cloak. "Hey! It just works!"

She felt Chrom shake her shoulder and point towards the archer.

The bow fell on the ground as it's user dissipated into mist in front of her eyes.

"What did I just witness?" She asked, dumbfounded.

Garrick began moving towards his thrown axe. He laughed. "It just works! I told ya!"

Robin rubbed her forehead as she slowly discarded all the backup plans she had to take out the archer.

* * *

Virion took a step forward.

Julien took a step back.

Virion took a step forward.

Julien took a step back.

Annoyed, Virion took two steps forward. "Sire, would you please calm down so I may approach you and see if you are injured?"

Julien hopped back the equivalent of three steps and looked at him confusedly.

The third person facepalmed. "He doesn't understand you, ya twerp!" She circled around him on her mount. "Will ya stop dancin' around and tell us what's going on?"

_Bang_

She pointed to the distance. "Like that noise? We're searching for captain Chrom."

Julien took a guess at what she meant, considering they just saved him from that creature. He made a gesture to follow as he walked back towards the fort. As he neared it, he realized that the creature that chased him earlier had disappeared without a trace. He narrowed his eyes but decided to deal with that problem later.

Behind him, the woman seemed to understand his intentions and beckoned her mount forward. The man, silver-haired and surprisingly well dressed, began 'passionately' talking to the female cavalière as he followed her.

Julien chuckled when he saw the redhead become fuming mad and force him away using her spear.

He hauled himself up the wall of the small fort and set his rifle down. Then he remembered it was still jammed.

The woman managed to climb up first and saw Julien curse loudly as he failed to pull the charging handle. She looked at him funnily, observing the terran shake the odd-looking object.

"Hey what are you doing?" She gruffly asked.

When he tried to pull the charging handle again, she took the weapon away.

"Hey!" Julien indignantly shouted.

She pulled the charging handle using her muscular arms. Her superior strength managed to force the malfunctioning cartridge to eject out of the weapon. She yelped in surprise as the offending object flew out of the ejection port.

Julien caught the 7.5mm round as it went by him. He looked closer and found an indent on the plastic casing. The propellant is relatively stable so it most likely wouldn't have exploded.

The woman handed him his weapon back. "What is this thing?" She asked, tapping on the frame.

The rifleman did not respond, simply aiming his weapon towards where he remembered his friends went. He pushed his glasses up a little bit and put his stabilized his weapon. He made one last check on the state of the rifle before aiming with the iron sights.

Noticing where he was looking, she turned to the same area, squinting to try to notice anything important. She could see some figures relatively far away. A shuffling noise came from beside them.

"Milady! I heard distress so I came as quickly as I could!" The well-dressed man said on his up the wall.

_**BANG**_

Virion tried to cover his ears as he heard the gunshot. He realized he also released his hold on the wall.

"Oh bother."

* * *

Hugo chuckled to himself. All that trouble just to deal with a single archer that died to an axe to the face. It might have been a lucky axe throw from Garrick, but nonetheless, it still managed to pin them down despite being severely outnumbered.

He watched Dominic pat him on the back and congratulate him for his achievement. This night felt a bit nuts to the former spaceship captain: A sudden volcano eruption and weird creatures dropping out from the sky.

'_At least it's over' _ He thought, stretching his arms and yawning.

Meanwhile, Robin wondered where Frederick was. By now, the man should have returned to them and noticed the undead archer was dealt with.

She could hear galloping. It was getting closer, but the steps were way too fast to be relaxed. Something was wrong, she knew it.

Frederick burst out from a clearing of trees.

"Hey Frederick! We managed to deal with the archer!" Lissa happily waved.

Her smile was crushed moments later when the knight pointed behind him. There was a massive group of the undead-like creatures chasing him. Of them, one was larger and had a fancy hat.

"Oh are you fucking kidding me." Hugo muttered.

Chrom unsheathed his sword. "Frederick! Move this way!" He waved.

Robin suddenly got an idea when she remembered the effects of the terran weapons on the creatures. She turned towards a puddle of glowing lava.

"Wait! Swing around in that open area instead: We'll attack the creatures when they are exposed with our ranged weapons!" She shouted, pointing towards the puddle while preparing her thunder tome with the other hand.

Frederick nodded and rode beside the slowly dimming lava. Sparing a glance behind himself, he saw the creatures give chase and try to catch up to him. A thunderbolt crashed into one and sent it staggering into the hot stuff.

It howled painfully as it was consumed by the heat, slowly subliming into a purple mist.

A second later, three flashes of light accompanied by the signature noise of the mercenaries' weapons signaled their participation in the battle. Two small splashes were heard as two more of the dozen or so chasing him were sent into the lava.

The knight realized Robin's intentions and slowed down to keep the creature's attention focused on him. They took the bait and kept chasing him.

However, his mount was becoming more and more agitated as the 'undead' approached. He would have to give it a treat and some grooming afterwards, he thought.

"Hey Robin, what do the rest of us do?" Chrom asked, seeing that she had a good plan in mind.

"Just stay nearby in case there's some sneaking up behind us!" She grunted out, launching another magic attack.

The missed but landed close enough to slightly shock one. Moments after, pellets landed on it's chest and sent it into the puddle of dangerously hot rock, finishing it off. Then, two more targets were melted too.

Another gunshot rang out, but the timing and sound was off. Robin spared a quick glance towards the three 'terrans'. The three people should be attacking nearly in sync yet she heard a fourth 'bang' immediately after. When she turned back towards the chase, she noticed that there was one less of the creatures.

* * *

"What infernal thing makes that level of noise!?" Virion complained as he climbed onto the crumbled battlements of the tiny fort.

"Dear Sully, do you perchance know why there was such a terrible noise that had befallen our ears?" He asked when he realized that the odd man was not paying attention to him.

She pointed towards where the fighting was. "It's this thing he's holding, I think. And I see Lord Chrom! It looks like they need help. Ruffles, sorry but I gotta go!" Having found her excuse to get away from the man, she quickly climbed down the platform before Virion could reply.

Sighing dramatically, he moved beside the man and examined what he was holding. It had a sleek form with a black colouring made out of a material he had never seen before. There were small bits of metal poking out of it, one of which the user was looking through.

The casually clothed man's hands were both on the object. One gripped the frontal part while the other was on a handle. Virion noticed him pulling his right index finger.

_**BANG**_

"By Naga!" Surprised by the sudden flash of light and bright noise, he visibly recoiled and moved back a few steps.

Once he turned towards the battlefield, he saw someone he didn't recognise put a thumb up toward them.

Realizing it was some sort of weapon the silent man wielded, he became fascinated and stayed to watch it in action.

* * *

Chan Sung put his thumb up at their long-range backup. He smiled and went back to shooting the 'zombies' near the lava puddle.

However, when he turned his attention back to his previous task, he found his targets charging at him instead.

"Oh shit!" He exclaimed as he snapped his shotgun on target and squeezed the trigger.

Robin realized the sudden course change too. "Chrom! Garrick! We're going to need you two now!"

"Finally! I felt a bit useless when it looked like you wouldn't need me." The swordsman said, brandishing his weapon. Garrick yelled out a battle-cry and charged in alongside him.

Chrom intercepted the sword of one of the monsters, deflecting it away from Dominic. The scotsman muttered a thanks before moving away to a safer distance. The blue haired man was too close to his target and he did not want to risk friendly fire.

Garrick, sensing his opportunity, cleaved the arm with the weapon off. He then moved on to another target without stopping. He sidestepped a strike from a spear and decapitated his target.

Witnessing the bandit continue his streak, Hugo whistled in appreciation. He decided he would avoid getting into a scuffle with Garrick in the future.

"Hey why are you not helping!?" Lissa yelled from a safe distance, once more from behind a tree.

"The pot calling the kettle black!" The former spaceship captain replied.

"Hey! What does that mean?!"

"Are you people having an argument in the middle of a battle?" Robin asked, launching another bolt of electricity.

"NO!" Lissa fervently denied.  
"Yes! So what!?" Hugo answered.

"Make yourselves helpful!"

"They're too close! I can't get a clear shot!"

As she was about to respond, she saw a creature charge past Chrom and Garrick. She briefly heard the swordsman yell a warning to the others, but it went unnoticed because of the gunfire from the other terrans.

Robin's expression went from concentration to horror when her thunderbolt was easily dodged. It raised it's axe in anticipation to strike. The iron weapon was rusty, indicating terrible maintenance and any wound inflicted to be more dangerous.

"Get out of the way!"

She complied, diving to the side as it swung the weapon down.

A gunshot rang out.

Pain exploded in her leg, causing her to scream in agony. She rolled to the side, onto her back and expected to be missing a foot. It was still there, but it seemed like some flesh was torn away from it.

Hugo grabbed her hand and put her into a fireman's carry.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Getting you to a medic!" He answered, jogging towards where he last saw Lissa.

"What's a medic?"

She heard him grumble something in response and drop her off beside the cleric. The man then left them to rejoin the fight.

Lissa took out her staff and began working on her fresh wound.

She narrowed her eyes when she saw two different wounds that cleanly punched a hole in her leg and another that ripped off skin and flesh before suddenly stopping.

"What wounded you?" The cleric asked, closing the puncture wound first.

"I'm not sure. Hugo said something about getting a clear shot and if I was hit by that axe, my leg would be gone." Robin raised her head, trying to take a look at the situation on the battlefield.

Lissa made her lay it back down. "So he accidentally hit you with his weapon? What would make two different wounds then?"

She gritted her teeth as a fresh wave of pain hit her. "Perhaps I was grazed by the axe?"

"I would be seeing a bit of rust then."

"Odd. I will need to ask them about their weapons then. What is currently going on the battlefield? I need to rejoin soon."

"It seems like they have it under mostly under control. Although, Frederick is still getting chased by one of those creatures, the one with a hat." She took one last look at the two recently healed areas. "You can go now. Be more careful next time."

Robin nodded and got back up.

* * *

Frederick glanced behind him. One of the mysterious creatures were still chasing him. He looked back again. It was catching up, he realized.

Urging his mount to move faster, he distanced himself from the monster.

However, the terrain seemed to disagree with him as he neared the end of the clearing. Trees were blocking his path and turning back meant that he would run straight into his opponent.

The monster roared, catching up because of his hesitation. It hefted it's axe in anticipation to strike.

Frederick steeled himself and charged into the forest despite the risks. The sudden burst of speed surprised the hostile creature, making it miss it's swing.

As it prepared to pursue, a spear pierced it's right arm.

"EAT THAT!" Shouted Sully, galloping by on her mount.

The monster turned and roared in anger. Seeing the cavalière prepare another pass and noticing the different colouring of her bright red hair, it realized that it was another person. Nevertheless, it raised it's axe in anticipation to strike back.

Another spear plunged into its back. Suddenly turning around, the dark creature wrenched the weapon out of the grip of an annoyed Frederick.

"Hey Frederick! Good to see ya!" She waved.

The man nodded in return. "This is an unfortunate situation we are in. These deathly creatures seem much stronger than the average person. We should retreat to our allies."

"It took a damn spear to it's chest and didn't budge. I doubt we'll have anything that can kill it."

* * *

From his high ground position, slightly removed from the battlefield, Julien could spot the group finish off the last of the _things_ in their area. However, there was also one last creature chasing Frederick and that woman he saw earlier.

He heard the man next to him say something, but the language barriers prevented him from understanding anything.

He waited, watching the 'Shepherds' realize that there was one last target and prepare to fight it.

The blue haired guy and the shirtless axeman paired up first.

Next, the four people with ranged weapons formed a lined behind the two.

The blonde child seemed to be hiding behind a tree far behind the group.

Robin threw spell after spell at it, some missing and those that hit seemed to only momentarily shock it. He saw the distinctive flashes of gunfire pouring onto it but having a similar effect.

The person next to Julien stood up and drew a bow. But he hesitated, realizing his target was too far away and moving too quickly.

The two cavaliers passed their small defensive line and began turning around to assist in the fight.

Julien slew his iron sights on target.

* * *

Lissa peeked out from her cover in time to see the monster parry Chrom's swing then throw aside Garrick.

She winced when the bandit tried again and was hit on the bare chest. He fell down and rolled away.

The terrans were forced to hold their fire because their weapons were not accurate enough to avoid hitting allies while Robin was trying to coordinate everyone into a simultaneous attack on the creature, but kept getting interrupted when it decided she was a prime target.

She saw Frederick ride around the area, somehow with his weapon stuck in the back of the creature.

"Hey Sully!" She cheered, spotting the distinctive short red hair of the Shepherd's cavaliere.

The woman stopped for a moment. "Hey yourself! Good to see you're fine!" Sully yelled back.

"I need healing!" Garrick shouted, limping towards her.

When the opportunity to be useful finally presented itself to her, she sprinted out from behind her tree and set to work. She concentrated on her staff and did her best to mend the bleeding wound.

"Hey weren't ya the ylissean who knocked me out today?" He realized. "You interrupted our glorious duel!"

She examined the freshly closed injury but found no problem. "Yes yes, now go back in, you're fixed."

He pointed towards her, narrowing his eyes. "You will be punished for-"

"-EEEEP!" Lissa shrieked.

Garrick turned around and barely managed to catch the axe with his own. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw a small crack becoming larger on the handle of his weapon.

His weapon broke and he found himself defenseless in front of the large monster. Taking a closer look, he noticed the creature had a sort of mask covering it's facial features, only letting the ominously glowing red eyes stare at him.

He also realized that he should have not been staring.

"LOOK OUT DAMN IT!" Chrom shouting, diving on him and throwing the two away from a downwards power swing.

The _thing _roared in anger. Lissa shrieked again, too scared for her brain to register the danger and run away. Robin shouted something, but went unnoticed as everyone else began panicking and backing off.

A blue blur began approaching the two downed men, but would obviously be too late to do anything.

* * *

The wind ceased.

The target stood still.

The range is around a hundred meters.

Julien quickly calculated the ballistic trajectory of the rifle round. He aligned his sights with the 'head' of the creature.

Recalling any advice he could remember at the top of his head, he held his breath and squeezed the trigger.

_**BANG**_

* * *

Robin saw a small glint of light before something pierced cleanly through the head of the monster and sent it into mist.

A pair of footsteps stopped next to her.

"By Naga…What killed it?"

"I think I know." She turned towards the voice. "And you are?"

"Call me Marth." The masked figure replied, walking away.

Robin placed her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "Odd."

* * *

Virion's jaw dropped.

"My, my. A weapon that hits from afar, with precision no less. It appears I have found a truly interesting artefact, to say the least." He whistled.

* * *

Frederick got off his mount. "Milord, do you need medical attention?"

"I'm fine." Chrom replied, dusting off his clothes. He turned towards his sister, who was still frozen in place. "Lissa are you alright?"

Getting no response, he waved a hand in front of her. "Sister?"

"Uh, I think we broke her." Dominic said.

The young cleric shook her head momentarily. "THAT WAS AWESOME!" She chirped, now suddenly full of excitement.

Chrom sighed.

"So, are we heading home or nah?" Sully asked. "Also, who are these guys?" She pointed towards Hugo.

"I believe we are returning." Frederick retrieved his spear. "They are mercenaries. We have met them during a bandit raid."

"Are you sure these guys aren't bandits themselves?"

"Well they seem honest enough." Chrom replied.

"You know we can hear you, right?" Hugo said.

Sully rolled her eyes. "Of course I know."

Chan Sung squatted. He yawned.

A chain reaction of yawns followed as they realized their fatigue from fighting in the middle of the night.

"Right, I'll go pick up Julien and we'll leave." Hugo stretched his limbs.

"Bring Ruffles too!" Sully added.

"Who's Ruffles?"

"You'll find out soon." Chrom replied as he walked towards the fort.


	5. You're Hired (Chapter 4)

**A/N: Well, it only took me forever to get the chapter done, even on a winter break. Anyways, some parts of the prologue were changed to smoothen reading. Comments would be appreciated.**

**Warning: May contain some swearing.**

**Have fun reading.**

* * *

Tristan opened the hatch to the ship's commons room and entered.

"_**Foolish humans, you dare defy Naga?" **_

Someone laughed.

"Hey guys. What are you doing?" He asked, circling around the people gathered around a table.

"Dungeons and Dragons." Egor replied, the tall elf-like russian dropping his impersonation of a mad dragon. "Wanna join? We're using it to learn ylissean."

The swedish man took one of the spare chairs that was laying around. "Uh sure, I guess."

"Do you have a character sheet?"

"No… I'm going to need to make one."

Qihao suddenly stood up, holding the weapon that broke not even a day into its service life. "I've got to finish fixing this weapon." He sighed irritatedly.

"Aw, just when things are really starting to get good." Gilles complained, watching as the asian man made to leave. He got up and followed suit. "Tristan, can you take my character? Quahini's is unconscious so we don't have to roleplay him."

"Eh. Sure." He looked at the sheet passed to him. It was a bard.

"Your turn, by the way." The Dungeonmaster Egor said, gesturing towards the new player.

Gilles stood for a moment in the entryway as he watched the new player for his bard ponder.

And then, Tristan stood up and struck a pose. "I ROLL SEDUCE!"

Egor heard Donnel's laughter again. "Go ahead." He said, seeing as the local man had no problem with them trying to seduce a maddened version of their god in their D&D session.

Gilles could hear shouting and excited yelling mangled together coming from the people in that room as he left it.

'Probably got lucky,' he thought.

* * *

The KBR sat completely disassembled on the workbench, parts neatly organised in a fashion that would make identifying them easy. Qihao picked up the receiver and examined the already worn-out part. He scrutinized the amalgamation of plastic and metal before further disassembling it into smaller components.

"It broke already?" Gilles asked, taking a spot next to the workbench.

The asian engineer put components into a pile filled with other worn-out or broken pieces. "Half of the parts that should be made out of steel are in plastic because we can't get anything more complicated than a metal tube."

"Why did we use it then?"

"We needed a weapon and we didn't have anything else on hand." Qihao muttered irritatedly.

"Why not use swords and bows then? We got a bunch from the bandits a few weeks ago, after we landed."

"Do you want to fight on equal ground with enemies far more effective with these weapons than we are?"

"I mean… You're not wrong." Gilles conceded. "However, if our guns stop working in the middle of a fight, we're legit kinda doomed."

The asian sighed. "I'll go talk with the blacksmith then. Maybe we can get this shit fixed someday. Either that or we get some armor for ourselves."

Gilles made to leave, realizing that the conversation about melee weapons was going to be shelved for later. "I'll meet you at the village."

"Right. Later then." Qihao replied as he picked up a piece of paper to write down notes.

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

Feeling the exasperation from the constant whining over the last hour mount up, Hugo erupted. "No for god's sake! Julien! Will you shut up?"

Silence finally greeted the group walking through the picturesque ylissean countryside. It lasted mere moments.

"Are we there ye-"

Julien dodged the blond man's punch thrown in frustration. "Get over here!" Hugo yelled through bared teeth. The rest laughed as they watched his subsequent attempts to strangle the man.

Frederick rolled his eyes and tapped Chrom's shoulder. The man took his attention off the duo and edged closer to him.

"Milord, are you sure that you wish to recruit this odd cast? They could be plegian spies."

"I'm sure. They seem more like a third party from a different continent. Otherwise we would have seen some people speak like they do."

The knight grumbled but refrained from replying anything. His lord's earnest words were not enough to dissuade him of the potential threat at hand.

"Speaking of which, what do you think of hiring Robin as our tactician? She seemed to have taken control of both fights pretty well." Chrom motioned to the white haired woman currently used as a barrier by Julien to evade Hugo's ruthless assault.

"She is a woman whom we found in the middle of a field that incidentally possesses great knowledge of tactics and magic. She is definitely suspicious."

He shrugged in response. "You never know. Maybe no one cared for her talent. I believe her having lost her memories, or else she would have recognised me."

Frederick narrowed his eyes. "Is that not more suspicious?"

"What about the people with weapons that sound like explosions then?" Chrom contested, tilting his head towards the terrans.

The knight sighed but made no move to reply.

The group returned to normal once Hugo stopped chasing Julien around. There was still the occasional chuckle but most seemed content to stick to small chats or simply walking in silence. Farms were becoming more numerous as they continued moving walking to their destination, signalling the presence of denser civilisation.

They stopped at a nearby crop plantation at Hugo's request. As the group rested for a moment, Chrom explained to him what the food sources were for the ylissean population, from the higher-class citizens to peasants. Bread and vegetables formed the bulk of their food, supplemented by the occasional piece of meat.

The blue-haired swordsman sighed deeply.

"What's wrong?" Hugo asked as he looked at the crops wave around, disturbed by a peaceful breeze.

"Some time ago, this country was involved in a war that made us lose a lot of our populace. Some of our food recipes were lost in that lost conflict."

The mention of a recent war piqued the canadian's interests. He turned towards Chrom. "What happened?"

He made to answer but stopped when he felt a tug on his cape. "I will tell you later when we arrive at the capital."

"We're all rested. Brother, let's go!" Lissa chirped, suddenly joining the two.

"Alright, alright."

Hugo took one last look at the field before he followed. As he watched the crops be blown by another breeze, his thoughts went to the prospect of a proper meal.

* * *

The walls stood high, guarding the entire capital of Ylisse with space to spare. Farmland surrounded the city, providing it with fresh crops. The numerous citizens milled about inside the outer walls, some greeting them as they passed by whenever they didn't get looks overcome with bewilderment directed at the newcomers. Various buildings lined the streets of Ylisstol; blacksmiths, inns, bakeries, food stalls and others.

"So this is Ylisstol? I have never seen so many people before!"

"Robin, you don't exactly have a memory to compare it to." casually bantered Chrom, amused by her reaction.

"Oh come on! I have seen a village before… and the Shepherds… and the travelers. Okay fine I can't remember much." She deflated.

"It's okay. You can make yourself new ones, new memories for a new life."

"You're... right. I should probably stop being so pessimistic about this. Maybe I'll remember my parents or my past at some point." Her mood visibly brightened.

* * *

Dominic, currently stuck between his friends arguing with each other about lasagna, suddenly felt his shipping senses tingle.

* * *

"Is milady here entranced by the words of prince charming?" Virion said, approaching the duo with a flourish.

"Hey! I'm not!" She replied indignantly.

Chrom chuckled. "If you were, you would be the first one I ever caught the attention of."

Robin rolled her eyes and looked around. The citizens were milling around, mostly minding their business. Some even sent them some greetings, to which each seemed to respond in their own way.

Lissa waved back cheerfully as Virion answered in the most dramatic fashion possible. Chrom and Frederick both nodded in acknowledgement while Sully replied animatedly and Garrick surprised them with his accent and brute-like demeanor.

Meanwhile, the 'terrans' stood around awkwardly when they were stared at for their odd clothing and equipment. Some citizens tried to approach one of them but stopped when they saw them slowly backing off into the group.

Robin then noticed the chatter becoming more and more animated. She tugged Chrom's shoulder. "What's happening?"

The man stopped to listen for a moment and smiled. "Looks like the Exalt has come to visit."

The group witnessed the Exalt pass by with heavily armed escorts. Her blonde hair formed in two large pigtails shone in the bright sunlight over the front of her royal pale green robes, decorated with gold trimmed edges and details. She slowly marched with the fully armour clad royal guard, smiling back at Lissa when she waved at her. Her serene expression seemed completely unbothered by any events that may have befallen the lands.

"The exalt is your ruler, right? Then wouldn't it be slightly hazardous for her to walk among commoners?" asked Robin, watching her pass by, hounded by a crowd of worshipping civilians before she was out of sight.

"Yes, her name is Lady Emmeryn. However she decides to walk among the common folk to calm the population as a symbol of peace. Long ago, the fell dragon nearly destroyed our lands. But the first Exalt and the divine dragon managed to stop it before it could end humanity. Her presence reminds us of the peace we fought for long ago." expounded Frederick with a hint of pride.

"With Plegia hounding at our borders, we need her to keep the population tranquil or else war might break out." added Chrom.

"The Ylissean people are lucky to have her then."

"She's also the best sister ever!" excitedly chirped Lissa, suddenly joining their conversation.

Hugo rubbed his chin, mentally putting together a profile about Emmeryn. "Huh. She must be quite a nice person to have as a sibling then." He thought about it again. "Wait a moment..."

His and Robin's minds both screeched to a halt. "She's your sister?!" They blurted out in unison.

"But wouldn't that make you and Chrom..." She turned towards the blue haired man who waved at her with barely-contained smile.

Frederick helpfully finished her sentence for her. "The prince and princess of the realm, yes."

The amnesiac sputtered in panic, frantically trying to find any scrap of memory that would help her manners. She bowed in front of the two royals. "C-Chrom- I mean Prince Chrom! Princess Lissa! Sire! Please forgive my dreadful manners!"

Garrick, watching from the sideline and mildly surprised by the turn of events, laughed alongside Sully. The laughter attracted the attention of the rest of the terrans, Robin's actions adding fuel to the confused fire. They stopped their conversation about the abhorrence of pineapple on pizza to watch the event unfold.

Chrom chuckled. "Robin, Hugo, it's fine. I've never been much for formalities."

"Oh thank god." Hugo said, realizing that he did not in fact, offend the prince at some point.

"The prince and princess… That would explain why Frederick tolerates all the teasing." Robin thought out loud.

"Indeed." Frederick sighed from beside them. "The sacrifices I make for the good of the realm…"

Chrom looked at the castle, sat within the inner walls of the city. "Well then, would you like to meet Emm?"

"Emm?" Robin asked with hesitation in her voice. "Oh right you're the prince and she's your sister. Of course you would siblings have nicknames for each other."

"Am I not prince-ly enough to be considered royalty?" He retorted, feigning hurt.

"Well not really, to be honest. You run around in the countryside practically unescorted and hunt bears." Hugo deadpanned, earning a few snickers from the people following the conversation.

"I shall agree to that statement." Frederick added, to the bewilderment of the prince.

"Hey! You too?"

* * *

Virion and Sully exchanged goodbyes with the rest of the group, leaving early to retire to the Shepherd's barracks inside the inner walls and move their mounts to the stables.

When the remaining people entered the palace, they were greeted by none other than the Exalt and the commander of the Pegasus knights, Phila, waiting in the middle of the room.

A red carpet lined the center while arches supported the stone roof. The brand of the Exalt, a large tear drop in the middle, surrounded by an upside down omega symbol, was emblazoned on the green banners that lined the archways. The tinted mosaïc windows lit the room, casting many colourful shades onto the otherwise dull cut stone.

"Chrom! Lissa! Welcome home." The Exalt happily declared. She held her arms out, catching Lissa and Chrom in a hug. "And you too Frederick." She nodded in his direction.

He nodded back, bearing a poised and formal demeanour so as to not overstep his knightly boundaries.

"I think we should not have any more issues with bandits. We squashed one of the main raiding parties a few days ago." Chrom said.

"Wonderful."

He disconnected himself from the hug. "Emm, I'm almost sure that the bandits had come from Plegia. We will have to keep watch on the border."

"Captain Obvious." Garrick muttered, earning himself a glare from Phila.

"Forgive me, milord, my pegasus knights should have intercepted them." She apologised.

"No, Phila. Your duty was here, protecting our Exalt. We cannot have her unguarded in these times." The prince contested.

"Besides, we had plenty of help!" added Lissa, gesturing behind her.

Emmeryn turned her attention to the other people present. "Ah, you mean your new companions?"

"Yes. I'm currently considering officially adding them to the Shepherds." Chrom answered.

"What? Even me?" Garrick asked.

Chrom's silence was telling.

When Emmeryn noticed her brother's distress, an idea formed in her mind. "Who are you? If I may ask."

"Garrick. Former brigand." He answered, crossing his arms. "Got captured because some kid hit me over the back of my head with a staff." He remarked irritatedly, glaring at a certain princess.

Lissa shrunk behind her sister.

Her smile did not falter. "Why did you not attempt to harm her after you were captured? There seems to be no restraints put on you."

"Then I'd be shanked immediately." He deadpanned before continuing. "And before you ask, running away is impossible because they'll kill me when I get back to Plegia and I would've gotten killed by your Grima damned invincible knight anyways." He pointed to Frederick.

"Would you be interested in a chance at redeeming yourself then?"

Garrick laughed darkly. "After I've slaughtered dozens of ylisseans and razed entire villages? And gotten paid for it?"

Chrom's eye twitched. His hand went to his Falchion.

Emmeryn interrupted him with a simple hand gesture. Her smile had fallen into a neutral expression. "I believe in redemption. So I will offer you a chance to be pardoned if you worked with the Shepherds."

"Really?" She nodded. Garrick laughed again. "You know what? Sure. I'll accept it. Even if it's just to see how long it takes until you leave me to die."

Chrom made to protest but was stopped when his sister whispered something. His expression remained furious. "The Shepherds do not leave anyone to die. I will promise you that."

"Oh really? We'll see about that." He answered darkly.

"Is he off to cause trouble? Frederick could you please watch over him?" Chrom asked, watching the criminal leave.

Frederick nodded. "Very well, Milord."

Hugo clapped his hands together. "Right, so now that we're done with that mess, are we still going to be ignored?" He gestured towards himself and his friends.

"Don't worry Emm. These are not brigands." Lissa stepped out from behind her sister as the atmosphere slowly lightened.

"I believe I have not formally introduced myself. I am Emmeryn, the Exalt of Ylisse."

Robin curtsied "Robin. I hold no title as I cannot remember anything before prince Chrom found me in the middle of a field."

"I'm Hugo, the former captain of the _ISS San Pellegrino_."

"You are a captain of a ship?" Emmeryn inquired.

"Former captain. And it's a… very long story." He turned towards his friends, more specifically, towards the man wearing a pair of thick rimmed glasses and brown hair. "This is Julien. He does not speak ylissean but he is a good marksman."

He moved to the next person. An asian with origins from the korean peninsula. "This is Chan Sung. One of our brightest minds. He can speak a little bit, but he normally avoids talking."

He waved meekly, a nervous 'hello' coming out of his mouth.

The last one, Dominic, took it in his own hands to introduce himself. "I am Dominic, communications specialist. Nice to meet you, M'lady." He tipped his fedora that everyone swore was not there a moment ago. However, no one dared to comment.

Emmeryn nodded. "From what my brother has told me, all of you wish to join the Shepherds?"

Robin blushed, realizing that she had been personally asked to be recruited into what was basically the prince's personal guard. "It would be an honor."

Hugo rubbed his chin as he took a moment to think. "Your highness, we wish instead to be contracted to work with the Shepherds, but have some freedom over what we accept to do."

"Interesting. I would like to hear the specifics of your proposal." Phila whispered something into her ear. "However, there is a council gathering at this moment, so we will have to postpone this for later."

"Alright then." The blond man nodded, satisfied with her consideration.

"Wanna meet the Shepherds?" Lissa chipperly asked.

"Bof, we don't have much else to do. Sure."

"Alright, we will finish the contract once we get back. Lissa, do you mind guiding them?" Chrom asked.

"No problem!"

"I'll see you later then."

"Later bro!" Lissa waved as Chrom followed Emmeryn and Phila out of the room after her sister gave her one last hug.

"This way!" She said excitedly, a spring in her steps as she eagerly lead the group to meet her friends.

* * *

Robin and the terrans followed Lissa, exiting the palace in the direction of the Shepherd's barracks. They stopped at a multi-story stone building, with only a small sign outside marking who it belonged to.

The young princess opened the door and made for everyone to follow. Once inside, they spotted two beefy men hand wrestling at the nearby table. Frederick was standing beside another other person, seemingly glaring at one of the two men.

"Hey guys!" Lissa chirped, interrupting the contest.

One of the hand wrestlers, a shirtless blond man armed with bulging muscles, turned to respond. His mistake was fatal as his hand was slammed onto the table.

"Damn it!" The man muttered as Garrick began celebrating his victory.

The person beside Frederick immediately bounded towards Lissa after she made her presence known, her sausage curls flapping around as she ran.

"Lissa! My treasure, are you alright? I've been on pins and needles!" She fretted.

"Oh, hey, Maribelle!" The princess replied, catching her friend in a hug.

"'Oh, hey' yourself! I've sprouted 14 gray hairs fretting over you!"

"Maribelle, I'm fine! I can handle a battle or two." Lissa separated from their embrace. "Although I could do without the bear barbecue." She added.

"So. Who are the strangers?" Vaike said, interrupting their conversation. He noticed the odd clothing some of the newcomers wore. He pointed towards Julien's shirt. "What're they wearing? Looks weird."

"Vaike, have tact! Typical that you would open with nothing less than a critique of someone's attire." Maribelle replied.

Lissa pushed Robin forward towards the two people. "This is Robin! Say hi!"

She waved meekly, suddenly forgetting how to present herself. "Uh… Hi?"

"I'm Teach! Nice to meet'cha!" 'Teach' answered, taking her hand and shaking it thoroughly.

"His name is Vaike." Frederick deadpanned from behind the muscular man.

When Robin's attention turned towards the other person named Maribelle, she noted the parasol dangling over her shoulder and her pink noble-like clothing. Probably born and raised by nobility.

The woman nodded in her direction. "I am Maribelle, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Same to you." She replied, curtsying. She felt a slight uneasiness with the formality.

"And who may you be?" Maribelle turned towards the terrans.

When Lissa tried to drag Hugo forward however, he shook her off and walked forward himself. "My name's Hugo. He's Dominic. This guy is Chan Sung" He grabbed the last person's head and pointed towards it. "And this idiot is called Julien."

Said person arched an eyebrow, silently demanding to know why he was singled out. The glare he received from was enough of an answer. Probably the incessant whining from earlier.

"Well met." Maribelle nodded, internally wincing from the man's absence of proper manners.

"Hey, where's everyone else?" Lissa asked, noticing a lack of people in the lounge.

"Poor Sumia went running after that person-" Maribelle pointed to Garrick, who was sitting at the table with a mug of _something_ "-mentioned Chrom's whereabouts."

Dominic grinned for some reason.

"Miriel's in her room conducting experiments in her room again. Stahl and Sully are in the kitchen preparing food and Virion is off chasing skirts. At least, I believe so."

Seeing as everyone else was scattered around the barracks, Lissa thought it would be better if they introduced themselves to the rest of the Shepherds later.

"Right then! Let's find some rooms for you guys!" Lissa chirped, brushing past them. "I'll introduce them to the others later."

"Understood, Milady. I shall stay here and prevent that brigand-" "HEY!" "-from doing anything stupid."

"I'm right here you know!" The second shirtless man yelled indignantly, waving to get their attention. "And I haven't done anything bad yet." He added.

Frederick glared. "No. But you are up to something."

Garrick glared back.

Vaike began counting with a massive grin on his face.

Maribelle pinched her nose. She moved to Lissa's side. "I shall be joining you then. These buffoons are being too nosy."

"Really? I thought this was funny!" The young princess replied as she lead them past another door.

* * *

Robin entered her new room. Well it wasn't exactly hers, since there was apparently another person bunking, judging by the two beds. One of them had a small pile of books on it, laying claim to the mattress.

The two windows had their curtains bundled up, letting the room be basked in the warm afternoon sunlight. There were also other various pieces of furniture in the room, including a writing desk in the corner, but she paid them no mind.

She took off her coat and threw it onto the bed that she just claimed for herself. As the heavy piece of clothing was discarded, she sighed happily as she felt lighter. The coat was comfortable and she felt safe in it, but it was not really meant for indoors.

Robin took out her thoron tome from her belt and put it on the desk. Taking a seat to examine the object, she wondered how it ended up in her hands. She could wield it pretty effectively considering her last few times she fought, but she never actually remembered _how_ to use it.

She scratched her head until the door opened and someone fell through the doorway, landing squarely on her face.

_Ouch._

The person squirmed on the ground for a moment and grumbled something before she spotted a hand held out in front of her.

"Hey there." Robin smiled, watching the brown locks of hair swivel as the woman turned her head up to see the owner of the hand.

"Hello." She meekly answered, accepting her help. "Robin, is it?"

"Yes. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Sumia! I'm a pegasus knight in training." Sumia dusted off her armor. The pink chestplate covered her vitals while armguards protected her upper limbs. A purple skirt fell down from the armor set, revealing little more than thigh-high boots covering her legs.

"You're the owner of those books?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Can I borrow them?"

Sumia blushed. "Uh… When I finish reading."

Robin nodded in appreciation.

"So the others have talked about your place in the Shepherds. Prince Chrom recommended you as our tactician."

"Huh. Didn't think I would end up in that position, but sure." She shrugged.

As Sumia moved in to relax on the bed, Robin looked around her new accomodations. It felt kind of dull, she concluded. The small stack of books on the bed was the only thing giving off any semblance of personality to the room.

"Hey Sumia?"

"Yes?" She answered, sitting up to face her.

"Do you feel like doing a bit of decorating?"

"Of course! Do you have any ideas?"

Robin awkwardly stood there for several moments, trying to find some. "No." She concluded. "I thought you would have some, since you were the sole occupant of this room before I arrived."

"Oh. I just I didn't want to make it annoying for my future roommate because he might need extra room." Sumia smiled warmly. "Would you like to start right now?"

"Sure."

"Let's go to the marketplace then." She made to leave.

A few seconds after she exited the room, she realized that something was off. She turned around, finding Robin still in the doorway, looking flustered.

"Are you alright?" Sumia asked sweetly.

"I… don't have any money."

"Huh?" She blinked, surprised.

"I woke up in a field when Chrom took me in. I don't remember anything past that."

"Then it's also the ideal time to get you some better clothes! You need something better than that coat." She pointed out. Her smile was impossible to ignore now, too close to Robin's face as Sumia pushed her aside in the doorway to point at her purple coat.

"Is it really okay to spend your money?" Robin replied, finally entering the hallway.

"Just don't go for something too expensive alright?"

"Thanks."

"No problem. Now let's go!" The woman began walking for a few steps before she planted her face onto the ground.

"Damn it." Sumia muttered, wiping off some dirt off her face. The dirt came from her own boots, she realized, when she returned to her room after practice.

The hand was there to help her up again. Robin put her other hand to her mouth, trying to muffle her laugher.

Sumia simply sat there, irritated. A moment later, she broke out into her own giggles, the amusement proving quite infectious.

* * *

_Flop_

"Ahhh~"

"Julien, take off your dirty clothes before you jump on the bed." Hugo remarked as he entered the room.

"Hey it's not your bed!" He protested, enjoying the soft feel of the mattress compared to their sleeping bags.

"No. It's the prince's. He's being nice and giving us a room so don't make him regret it." The blond man put his weapon against the frame of the unclaimed cot. He sighed in relief as he dropped himself onto the chair.

"What's he doing right now?"

"He said that he had to go to a council meeting. Dunno when he will be back if you're asking."

"Wasn't asking about that. I was just curious."

The conversation was stopped so they could properly relax themselves. Julien stretched to relieve his aching muscles, the stresses built up since a few days ago. He then felt a pinprick on the back of his neck, something he forgot about until now.

"Hey Hugo?"

"Yeah?"

"I still have the splinter stuck on my neck." He idly noted.

Upon hearing those words, the blond man approached to examine the piece of wood. The area around it had swelled and turned purple. "How long was it there and how the hell did we not notice it?"

"A few days ago." Julien answered, before raising his collar in a way that displayed the splinter hidden behind his shirt.

"We should go get some alcohol or something. Just in case it's infected."

"Well can alien microbes infect us?"

"Dunno. We shouldn't take risks here though."

"'Kay."

As both men filed into the hallway, Hugo decided to voice his thoughts. "Do you know where the princess is? I kinda want to see if healing works against infections."

"How would I know? I can't even speak to them."

"Fair point."

They entered the main lounge, spotting only Chrom waiting at one of the tables. He was still in the same clothes as they last saw him, evident that he did not have time to change yet. Beside him was Garrick, oddly enough, talking to him over a cup of tea.

"Hey Chrom, where's your sister?" Hugo asked, interrupting their conversation.

The man gestured towards another door connecting to the lounge. "Kitchen. She's helping Sully and Stalh make food."

"Can we borrow her for a minute?"

"What for?"

"He needs healing. You do remember when we were running from that volcano right?"

"Volcano? What would that be?"

"Remember that night before we fought 'zombies'."

Chrom thought for a moment, searching his memory. The term used for those undead-like creatures they encountered that night was unique to these people. Instead, the council called those things 'Risen'.

Going further back, he remembered running away from fiery raining down from the sky. "I think so?"

"When we were running, Julien got hit by a splinter of wood. He hasn't removed it yet."

Chrom's eyes widened in distress. "Why? Go get Lissa now! That's dangerous!"

"Alright alright."

As the two entered the door to the kitchen, Hugo quickly spotted the yellow dress of Lissa. "Hey princess!"

"Yeah?" She answered, not taking her eyes off her stew.

"Can you take a look at the splinter on his neck?" Hugo asked, bringing Julien next to her.

"Wait you didn't remove it yet?"

"No. We forgot about it."

"That's not good." She turned towards another section deeper in the Shepherd's kitchen. "Sully, Stalh! Take care of my soup, I have an emergency!"

"_Got it!"_

"I'll go take a look at the injury. Can he at least understand what I say?"

Julien nodded, then shrugged.

"Some." Hugo answered for him.

Lissa took the man's arm and dragged him out of the room. "Right. I need to fix you quickly!" She said, putting as much urgency in her voice as possible.

When the door didn't shut itself, Hugo had to remind himself that these things weren't the pneumatic doors he was used to. He closed the door and looked at the soup that was currently boiling.

He went over to smell it and reeled back when his nostrils were assaulted by something that made him want to cry inside from how disgusting it was.

He blinked once, then twice when he was out of the smelling range. Turning around, he noticed he ended up in the other section, and that a man was looking at him funny.

"What?"

"Who are you?" The person sporting brown hair with a slight green tint asked. The man's green armour clinked as he turned around.

"Hugo." He answered.

"New to the Shepherds?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm Stahl. Cavalier. Nice to meet you."

"Same." The blond man shook his hand and looked over the cooking utensils and pans. He rubbed his hands in glee, noticing that he had some knowledge of the equipment here. "Now, can I make something?"

"Sure. I'll go check up on Lissa's soup."

As Hugo took the materials he needed for his recipe in mind, he heard a scream from the other side. "You smelled Lissa's soup?" He saw Stahl run away from it while covering his nose.

Raucous laughter could be heard coming from Sully, currently occupied taking bread out of the oven.

"Yes. Please tell me you know how to cook."

Hugo laughed.

* * *

Garrick sat in the lounge, watching people come and go. He was there since he couldn't be trusted to go outside for a walk, apparently. Going anywhere outside of the barracks and training grounds of the Shepherds without express permission was an annoying rule, but he reluctantly understood why.

Chrom left soon after a guy with glasses was dragged out of the kitchen by the princess, the little cleric furious for some reason. He quickly gave chase as the pair bolted into another room, the little cleric absolutely furious.

The former brigand began thinking about what they were doing to him, but drifted towards his situation instead. He was now considered in enemy territory, and somehow managed to get himself 'hired' by the guy that he was basically sent to kill.

"_What a turn of events."_ He thought, taking a sip of ale.

Before he could continue pondering, the kitchen's smells began infiltrating into the main lounge. First, something absolutely abhorrent assaulted his nose. Then it subsided, leaving behind a faint trace of bread and something he couldn't quite place.

It felt quite pleasant, though.

Standing up, he took a look outside. The sun was beginning to set and was slowly turning the entire sky orange. He took note of how long he was sitting there, lost in his thoughts.

And then his peace was ruined by someone barging into the lounge and landing face first into the floor. He grimaced as items of clothing were strewn across the floor, collecting much of the dirt in their path.

And then the kitchen door burst open with the foul-smelling thing again, now held in the young princess's arms.

Garrick quickly decided that punishment was better than staying in the same building as that thing and promptly burst out the front door, pushing aside a surprised white haired amnesiac that was in his way.

* * *

"Hey!" Robin yelled as Garrick burst past her, nearly making her drop her new articles of clothing. "Where are you going!?" She added, realizing that the person was supposedly not allowed out of the building with an escort.

He stopped, coughing out the smell and taking a deep breath of fresh air. "I'm taking a stroll to get away from that horrible thing!"

"I'll tell someone to chaperone you then." She turned her attention to the brunette beside her and helped her get back up. "Sumia, are you alright?"

She brushed the dirt off of herself. "Yes. I am."

Robin kneeled and began picking up the items. "Looks like most of these are fine."

"Good. It wouldn't be a good thing to go buy clothing and end up with no new ones." Suddenly, her senses began screaming at her for some reason.

Thankfully she didn't drop her stuff again, only wobbling in place as her friend continued adding the fallen clothes into the basket.

"What's that smell?" Robin asked, her nose scrunching in disgust. She turned towards Lissa bringing a pot of _something_ to the dining table.

Once they finished collecting their clothes, they briskly walked out of the lounge and towards their room to store their merchandise.

As Robin was about to round the doorway, she turned to take one last look and saw the kitchen's door open, revealing a blond man hugging a large bowl of… squiggly beige things.

Deciding to ask what it was later, she resumed following Sumia back to their room.

* * *

"Hey you managed to make spaghetti?" Julien commented from the doorway leading to the dorms.

"Yeah. Didn't quite get them right though. Just don't have the same stuff as earth." Hugo replied, setting the bowl of freshly-made spaghetti on the table. "And I still need to get the sauce done."

The former gunner took a seat near some other Shepherds, who were chatting amongst themselves. "Can I try it?"

"Sure. Wait for me to get some bowls first."

As the blond man left to pick up utensils, a curious Chan Sung took a seat next to his comrade. The newcomer examined the odd spaghetti, feeling like something was off about what would otherwise be a normal type of food.

His mind worked for a moment. "Wait. Where did Hugo get this spaghetti?"

"That would be because I had to make it from scratch. It took me a few tries and the recipe is still off. We're on an alien planet." Hugo answered, coming back with a small stack of bowls and two-pronged forks.

The blond man sat opposite from the two as he passed out the bowls. Julien took some, not sure whether he really wanted to test the captain's normally good cooking with alien materials.

He looked at the person beside him suddenly ravenously consume the spaghetti like a North korean refugee.

"Finally some good fucking food." Chan Sung muttered between slurps of spaghetti.

Julien chuckled and let go of his hesitation, realizing that the spaghetti was probably better than the cooking they ate the last few days.

Hugo felt pride swell within him, his italian roots showing itself.

Heavy footsteps came from behind him, barely hearable over the chatter of the other Shepherds. A familiar head with blue hair stopped beside him.

"Can I try some?" Chrom asked, a grimace on his face.

"Oh! Sure. Help yourself." Hugo took a glance at the other table and saw Sumia patting Robin's back, the white haired amnesiac's face on the table. She pushed away a bowl, presumably it contained the horrible thing that presented itself as 'stew'. Everyone seemed to stay away from it, visibly preferring the food Sully and Stalh made.

He pointed towards the offending pot of stew. "You tried that?"

"Yes. Unfortunately for my palette." Chrom replied as he took a bowl of spaghetti. "What is this called? Please tell me it's better than Lissa's 'stew'."

"_Spaghetti_. Normally you would also eat this with sauce but I couldn't manage to make any. And since I couldn't find the right ingredients I don't think the taste is quite right either."

Chrom took a bundle and tried it. He nodded in appreciation. "Yes, something feels off about this '_spaghetti' _but it tastes pretty good. Is that how you pronounce it?"

"Eh. Close enough."

"You hail from another continent? How come I've never heard of anything like this?"

"Well… Yes. It's a bit complicated." Hugo summed, deciding to keep their alien origins a secret.

"Well then. I won't pry, but we have to create that contract to officialize you working with the Shepherds."

"Right then. After dinner?"

"Sure."

"What fine subject would you gentlemen be discussing currently?" A certain silver-haired archer asked.

Hugo quickly changed the subject. "Tits or ass?"

"Oh my lord! How could a prince be discussing such subjects! The answer, of course, should be thighs!"

Chrom groaned.

* * *

Tristan threw the blood-stained gloves into the trash can as he left the room. He took a moment to recover himself, trying to somehow vent out his disgust. He looked back at the room, the body just outside of his view.

"I'm going to need to ask someone else to get rid of it later." He idly noted.

He stretched himself as he walked through the corridors of the crashed ship, wondering where his crewmates were. The ship was mostly empty today since everyone was out either learning ylissean or using their knowledge to use. They were paid by the village in food and commission requests instead of money though.

Before he could mull further on how they'd become civil servants, he reached his destination: The Engineering Bay or rather the "quargo bay" as everyone called it.

He entered the room, rounding a massive tarp-covered object and finding Qihao at a workbench once more.

Tristan slid a clipboard onto the table, prompting the asian man to interrupt his work to inspect the findings.

"Hey Quiznos? Don't make me do this twice, alright? It's disgusting."

The man nodded in acknowledgement, not taking his eyes off the document. He flipped a page and narrowed his eyes.

"Hypotheses?"

"Yeah. It's how I think their bodies work. Not a hundred percent sure though."

The asian gave the clipboard back. "Right. Pass this info to the rest of the guys when you can."

"Got it. I'll see you later then?" Tristan made to leave, stopping at the doorway.

Qihao saluted and returned to his work. "Later."

* * *

Hugo viewed the contract in his hands, thoroughly examining every detail and searching through a nearby ylissean dictionary incase he felt a slimmer of uncertainty. He lost track of how long he was looking over the piece of parchment.

The blond man did one last modification to the contract before he finally put the quill down. His hands ached, but he didn't care. His job was done and he was satisfied with what he came up with.

Chrom had already taken multiple breaks and Emmeryn had left by the time he was done.

The prince took another sip of tea before the contract was pushed before him.

"Can I read this over tomorrow?" He tiredly asked as he took a quick glance under the candle light. There was a lot of work to be done tomorrow with his sister.

"Sure." Hugo yawned, stretching his limbs. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah."

As both filed out of the room, they found themselves walking beside each other, taking the exact same doors through the corridors of the Shepherd's barracks.

An awkwardness hung in the air as they continued travelling together, neither uttering a word.

Then, Chrom tried to break the silence after a painstaking amount of time.

"So, what do you think about the barracks?"

"It's okay. Feels a bit more like a home than a barracks though."

"Well it is. Ylisse technically does not have an army anymore so there's a lot of things that are left lying around."

"And since you're royalty, you can just take it since no one else is using it and it's still government property."

"Well, yes." Chrom shrugged. "I was going to put in better terms."

"Didn't you say that you were not one for formalities earlier?" Hugo rebuked, a grin slowly forming on his face.

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. A bit of formality is nice."

Hugo chuckled.

"Well how much did you change? I didn't get to review it carefully. I hope you did not change everything."

The terran took a moment to organise his thoughts. "No. Just added some details."

"I thought the contract covered everything already."

"Well you never know."

Chrom shrugged in response as they arrived at their destination. A realization suddenly dawned on them.

"I assigned your room next to mine?" He said in disbelief.

"You don't sleep in the palace?" Hugo asked in the same instance.

They looked at each other, both finding surprise etched on the other's face.

"No. Only my sisters do. I prefer to sleep with the Shepherds."

"Isn't that risky for royalty though?"

"I have Falchion at my side and my friends guarding me." He patted his sword still attached to his hip.

"What if one of your friends betrays you?"

Chrom hummed in thought. "I doubt that." He answered firmly.

"Alright then. I don't know your friends as well so I'll follow your judgement."

"You'll find that they're very reliable."

* * *

"Lissa _what the fuck!_"

Hugo didn't know how he found himself swearing at the princess. He knew he shouldn't have, but the words came out of his mouth before he realized it. He took a deep breath and hoped that she never learns of what the words meant.

And then he went back to his situation at hand, looking at the shattered window courtesy of the weapon in her arms.

"Uh… I can explain." Lissa said sheepishly.

"You better do." The blond man replied, still fuming.

"I remembered the last time you used this weapon and it was so cool!" She said, slowly handing the firearm over. "And terrifying." She added.

Hugo immediately put the safety back on. "And why did you steal the gun?"

"I wanted to know how you made those monsters go flying!"

He pinched his nose in irritation. "Don't mess around with firearms, they're not toys."

"So these weapons are called firearms?"

"Well, this is a type of firearm and... Look, I'm not going to explain since it's a bit complicated. All you need to know is to not point this" He tapped the barrel "towards anyone, alright?"

Lissa nodded. "Okay."

"And don't go playing around with these things, they're expensive."

"But can you show me how they work?" She pleaded, putting on the same expression she used to convince her siblings.

Hugo put a hand over his face and sighed.

Rapid footsteps made themselves known as several guards rounded the corner with Chrom at the head.

"What happened here? We heard glass breaking and the loud bang of the weapons you use." The man asked, before quickly making the connection between the broken glass and still slightly-smoking barrel of his weapon. "Accident?"

"Yes." Hugo groaned. This was going to be a long day.

"Oh and by the way, we're leaving for Regna Ferox in a few days. I was going to tell everyone later but you might need more time to prepare your equipment. Be sure to bring warm clothing."

"We're already leaving?!" Lissa complained. "But we just got home a day ago!"

"Our encounter with the Risen wasn't the only case. We need to ask our northern neighbours for help or else the issue may get out of hand quickly."

Hugo nodded. "Alright. I'll go tell the others."

"Thank you." Chrom turned towards the Royal Guards. "Well, it was only an accident. You can return to your stations now."

The guards each eyed the mysterious 'weapon' curiously they left.

"Now, could you please explain to me how this happened?" The prince gestured to the broken window of his room.

Hugo pointed a finger towards Lissa. "Doesn't understand basic safety."

"Hey!"


	6. Infested Countryside (Chapter 5)

The wagon accompanying the Shepherds was abuzz with movement as it was loaded with an assortment of equipment, books, tents and food for the trip. After some debate, it was decided that most will remain on foot while Julien would be sitting on the front to take advantage of the incredible range offered by his weapon. Their trip would take at least twelve days and nights to cross. They needed to be ready for a long trip, even if they make take stops at villages.

The rifleman examined his refurbished battle rifle, scrutinizing it for any changes made in the short timespan of the few days they had stayed at the barracks before their departure.

"Did they change your weapon?" Robin asked the man sitting in the front of the wagon. She still wore her heavy coat even under the midday sun. The extra weight and heat did not seem to affect her at all

Julien looked to the person beside him for translation.

"She's asking what they added to the gun." Hugo answered. He took his attention off the road for a moment, feeling the boredom catch up to him. "Actually, I'm curious now. What did they change?"

Julien shrugged. "Only things I can see are the bipod and sights," He aimed his weapon off to the side, trying out the new irons. "but I don't know about the inside."

"He probably didn't actually change much then."

"The new iron sights are pretty nice though. It goes from one hundred to three hundred meters."

Hugo looked at his own shotgun, scrutinizing the 3-D printed plastic frame.

"Hey, are you going to answer her?" Sully interrupted, emerging from behind the wagon. Having overheard the conversation, she took the opportunity to try to get some answers for herself.

"Look, we don't know either." The blond man shrugged.

"What? They didn't tell you what they changed?" Robin continued, arching an eyebrow.

"I didn't ask him about it. It doesn't look like they did anything to it. All he said when he gave it back was that, and I quote 'Tell Julien that _Full-Auto_ isn't allowed'."

"What's '_Full-Auto_'?"

"It shoots repeatedly without needing to squeeze the trigger every time."

"Oh. Why is it not allowed then? More attacks means more damage done."

"We don't have much ammunition for it, and it can stop shooting and break sometimes."

"Well then why don't you guys use bows, or spears?" Sully asked.

"We're… Not very good with those."

"Is there anything other than your 'guns' that you can use?"

Hugo thought for a moment. "Not really."

"So you're useless without your weapons?" The fiery haired cavaliere concluded, crossing her arms.

"Kind of."

"I'll take this into consideration then." Robin nodded before disappearing behind the wagon.

"If you can't fight, why are you here again?" Sully said to no one in particular.

The blond man put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Because this guy can snipe you from hundreds of meters away and the rest of us can blast you apart."

"What are meters?" Robin asked, peeking her head out from the back of the wagon.

Hugo sighed, knowing that he now had to explain the metric system.

* * *

_Some days later..._

The convoy trudged at a comfortable pace, moving past the numerous farms that extended throughout the ylissean countryside. The landscape then slowly shifted to wilderness, more and more trees sprouting on each side of the partially cobbled road.

They had long since taken their time to sit down and eat a mid-day meal. The sun sat low in the sky, gaining a slight orange glow as time continued to pass.

Chrom felt the late afternoon air, enjoying the warmth it gave him as they continued on their trip. He idly stared ahead, but was only able to see so far as the road snaked past a grove of trees.

Deciding to look elsewhere for now, he counted Shepherds; Robin was talking with Sumia, Lissa was riding on Frederick's mount while the man guided it, Virion was trying to seduce Sully again and failing horribly, much to the amusement of Vaike, Hugo and Julien were still on the wagon and Stahl and Garrick were slightly ahead of the convoy.

There were people missing, but couldn't quite place exactly who. He looked to the sides of the road, seeing if there was someone he didn't account for. Then, as he was turning to the other side of the convoy, a soft blue glow caught his eye; it came from the wagon.

He looked inside it and found four figures peering at some object that shone light. Dominic was manipulating the blue box with a practiced grace, causing Miriel to stare intensely and rapidly jot down notes on a parchment. Chan Sung, meanwhile, was quietly encouraging the short man.

"What is that?" Chrom asked, drawn in by Miriel's genuine and apparent interest.

As if completely caught off guard by the question, the scotsman dropped his device in his lap. "Damn it!" He cursed, quickly picking it back up and resuming his button-pressing. However, his concentration was broken. He could do naught as the device suddenly displayed neon turquoise text shadowed by a black background.

Chan Sung angrily pointed both his arms towards the blue device. "Look at what you've done! He was this close to completing the mission!" He began to visibly writhe in pain, as though agonized over his friend's loss.

Dominic put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's fine. I saved recently."

"What do you mean by 'completing the mission'? I do not recall giving anyone an assignment."

Miriel stopped writing and readjusted her glasses. The mage then moved from her spot to the back of the wagon, parchment in hand.

"Permit me to explain the means through which it works. The device utilizes small yet intricate machinery as means to display light of different hues and to project images, providing entertainment. Within the frame resides the machinery as well as the battery which evidently provides the required electrical input to operate the device. It has been programmed to run and execute various complex algorithms to dictate the artificial opponent's actions, providing adversity to challenge the user."

Chrom blinked. "Uh… Okay." He answered, deciding that trying to decrypt her speech was not worth the time and investment.

"I think it'll be easier to just show you," Dominic held a hand out, letting the prince embark on the wagon. He handed him the device and began showing him how to control the screen.

But before anything other than how it was held could be taught, they were interrupted by gallops quickly approaching them.

"Risen ahead!" Stahl cried out, "Garrick is holding some off but there is clearly too many for him to handle!"

Chrom immediately shoved the device back into Dominic's hand and jumped off. He raised his weapon and called everyone to arms.

Robin came over soon afterwards, her two ivory pigtails swinging around as she came to a stop. . "Dominic, I'm going to need you to pass out weapons. If anyone asks for something, give it to them. Oh, and could you tell Hugo, Channy and Julien to stay here and guard the convoy?" Just as quickly as she came, she left to order the Shepherds around.

"Of course I'm support… again." Dominic sighed, giving out weapons to the Shepherds as they left to help Garrick.

"Welcome to the club." Lissa said, embarking onto the wagon. She held out her hand for a brunette in pink armor. "Sumia and I are staying here too. We're too much of a burden in combat."

"Is your tripping really that bad?"

Sumia nodded, embarrassed. "I don't mind staying behind, anyway."

Chan Sung tried to hide his chuckle, but failed quite miserably. He looked back at the accusatory stares of those around him. Some gazes included those who had never even heard him speak before.

Lissa hit him on the shoulder. "Hey! That's rude!"

Chan Sung whimpered in response, hiding further inside the wagon. However, his amusement continued slowly seeping out of his hands.

Dominic sighed. He should probably do what he was asked. "Hugo, we're guarding the convoy!"

"Ah, fantastic! We don't have to do shit!" The blond man answered from the other side of the tarp.

"Is your group always like this?" Sumia asked, taking a seat on one of the barrels.

"Oh, this isn't even the worst part."

Sumia groaned.

* * *

Garrick's muscles burned as the Risen tried once again to hit him with it's rusty axe. The blow nearly sent him reeling but he managed to stand his ground, barely deflecting the weapon away from himself.

The moment his opponent's blade was sent away with a small shower of rust, he went on the offense. His own axe whistled in response as he sidestepped the undead to add more force into his swing. His blade easily decapitated the Risen, turning it into dust.

As he paused to regain his breath, the man looked around and found many more running towards him with an assortment of weapons.

"Darn it." He swore, clearly knowing that he couldn't fight both at the same time.

Garrick immediately retreated to a grove of trees as they neared him, their heavy footfalls easily distinguishable from the background noise of the forest. He ran behind a trunk and hoped that his plan would work.

As he turned around, a spear tip punched through the tree with a mighty _thunk_, cleanly piercing the hundred year old trunk. A snarl came from the other side, the displeasure of missing him evident.

He didn't have time to marvel at their sheer strength before another Risen came barreling in from the right side, arming its sword for a downward slash. He leapt to the side as it tried to bisect him, dodging the rusty iron weapon by a hand's length. The sword split a root as it dug itself into the ground, locking it in place momentarily.

Garrick didn't even get a chance to fight back as the third one rounded the left side and tried to decapitate him. And with a split second decision, he stomped the rusty iron sword deeper into the ground and dashed past the struggling undead.

The axe struck his former position and continued, decapitating its sword-wielding ally as it continued sailing to the trunk.

His opportunity finally here, he turned around and readied his adrenaline fueled muscles for a counter-attack. Garrick crackled in glee as he swung his diagonally axe, right towards the face of the red-eyed monster.

An arrow flew in and nailed his target's skull to the tree, right before his axe came down, of course. Two more arrows flew in and turned the monster into dust

He snapped his head towards the source and found a silver haired archer bowing to him. Garrick simmered in anger for a moment before remembering that there was another Risen, the one that still had it's spear stuck inside the tree.

He rounded the trunk and only found the spear stuck there, along with a small pile of ashes on the ground.

"WHO STOLE MY KILL!?"

"Sorry!" Robin replied before resuming giving out commands. The other Shepherds were already moving past him, weapons drawn.

Garrick's grip on his axe tightened, knuckles white.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. You can go rest now, you did well." Chrom said before departing to join the rest.

He decided that they could risk dying themselves. He left the fight.

* * *

"Stahl, Sully! Flank left!" As the two cavaliers departed, Robin focused her attention towards her other compatriots. "Everyone, we're going to slowly move forward. Focus on picking them off one by one as they get close."

The group trudged forward at a comfortable walking pace, with Vaike, Frederick and Chrom at the front. Robin and Miriel stood to the right while Virion took the left flank to keep their line of sight clear.

"Risen over there!" Vaike yelled, pointing at one that was currently charging at them.

The monster thundered forwards, quickly garnering the attention of the group. It raised its sword in preparation for an overhead strike and was closing in at a staggering pace.

Virion reacted first, calmly drawing an arrow and releasing it towards his target. It struck the Risen in the 'chest' and would have normally staggered or even downed any other opponent. However, it did not even flinch, continuing along its path unhindered.

The mages struck next, Robin and Miriel throwing out thunder and fire in tandem. The creature made no move to dodge and took both attacks in the chest. It snarled back angrily, even if no evident marks of damage appeared.

The Risen continued charging.

Chrom easily dodged the telegraphed swing and moved in, swiftly decapitating it just like how he saw 'Marth' do it. Both body parts quickly disintegrated into purple mist.

Robin watched the prince taking a sigh of relief, silently thinking of how much damage that Risen took. Unlike the brigands she fought at the village, and because she had the opportunity to think with a clear mind unlike last time they faced Risen, she properly evaluated their opponent.

Looking towards the other Shepherds present, she saw the grimaces of everyone else, minus Vaike. They probably had come to the same conclusion; Risen are dangerous. Last time they were lucky because of the molten rock that they pushed them into, and the other ones, Garrick had already pinned down.

And things were only going to become harder, she thought, seeing a group of half a dozen more Risen leap out from the forest and dash towards them.

"INCOMING!" Someone yelled.

* * *

"You guys guarding the stuff?" Garrick asked Hugo.

The blond man gestured to the man beside him. "Just us two. The others are playing games."

The ruffian raised an eyebrow as he passed by. "Playing? When there's a fight going on?"

Hugo shrugged. "Robin told us to guard the convoy."

He reached the back of the wagon and peered inside. Four figures were hunched over, watching someone manipulate a glowing object.

"What are you doing, staring at him?" Garrick said in disbelief. _Is this what these idiots call 'playing games' these days? _

Noticing no response, he climbed in and opened his mouth to ask again. Sumia beat him to the punch, noticing him beforehand but having decided to stay quiet.

"Don't talk," she whispered, cupping a hand around her mouth to try to project her voice. "He needs to focus."

Curious, Garrick took a spot directly behind the short scottish man playing video games, forcing Sumia and Chan Sung to shuffle aside.

* * *

Robin launched the first strike, landing a thunderbolt on the front most Risen. Miriel and Virion quickly followed, landing attacks of their own and bringing down their target. They had naught time to prepare another salvo as the four other monsters crashed into them, one of them staying behind to fire arrows.

Frederick managed to pin down two Risen by himself, significantly easing the task of Chrom and Vaike, who had to stop the other two from reaching their non-melee fighters.

Sensing trouble, Robin picked up the sword from the first Risen they encountered and ran to help. "Virion, Miriel! Take out that archer!" She yelled as she passed by.

"I, the archest of archers, will personally see that accomplished." Virion replied, nocking another arrow.

Chrom deflected the sword that tried to eviscerate him. He grunted as another blow quickly came, forcing him to block it rather than deflect if he wished to live. Pinned down, he tried to force the Risen's blade aside. The stone-faced monster snarled and pushed harder, forcing the prince back.

He closed his eyes and focused on holding his opponent at bay, unable to divert the blades to the side.

Robin saw her opportunity and dashed in towards the two swordsmen locking blades. The Risen's attention was not on her yet; it's baleful red eyes were still focused on the prince.

She quickly ran past it and swung the rusty iron sword with all her might towards the exposed neck. It dug into the flesh, but stopped just short of severing the spine.

She backed up when it turned it's head towards her with the sword still stuck to the neck.

"It's still alive!" She yelled in surprise. Robin unlatched her tome from the holster and began hastily flipping through the pages.

At the same time, the pressure disappeared from Chrom's sword. He opened his eyes and noticed the Risen was distracted. He took the opportunity and dove in, sword armed. All it took was one well aimed slice to lop the head off.

Robin turned her attention to the four remaining Risen. "Chrom, go assist Vaike! I will get those Risen off Frederick!"

"Got it!"

She dashed to the knight holding off two Risen at once. Frederick had already sustained a few wounds, but the armor protected both him and his horse from the worst of it.

The man thrust his spear at one of the undead creatures as it tried to assault him. Spear met spear as Frederick blocked another thrust, forcing it to the side. He did not have time to retaliate as the axe bore down on him immediately, forcing him and his horse back.

The moment Robin came in and stunned the axeman momentarily with her magic, Frederick rushed in and thrust his silver spear cleanly through the skull. He then yanked his weapon towards the next target, trying to throw the body onto the other Risen to impede it from fighting.

The Risen ignored the ashes of its ally as it continued its attack towards the knight. The weapon pierced the shoulder armor and bit flesh, although it did not manage to damage much else than muscle.

Frederick calmly backed up when the spear ripped itself out, gouging an unsightly wound.

"Hmph."

The undead opponent, satisfied with the damage it inflicted, turned towards Robin.

By this time, she had already readied her spell and was currently launching it towards its skull.

The Risen spearman was hit in the face as it charged, stopping it in its tracks. It snarled in response and tried to close the distance again, only to be hit by another thunderbolt. The third one that followed finally killed off the monster, causing it to spasm onto the ground and dissipate into dust.

"Frederick, good work holding those off. It would have given us a lot of trouble if they managed to get past you," she noted.

"I am simply doing my duty. I hope you are doing the same."

"I'll do my best," she replied. "You should get your wounds checked. I'll help the others."

He nodded and rode away.

As the knight disappeared behind the grove, Robin turned towards the others. Miriel was taking samples of the ashes and Virion was dramatically recounting his fight with the Risen archer to her, much to her irritation. Vaike was moving towards their wagon to get his numerous cuts checked.

In the chaos of the confrontation, Stahl and Sully had flanked the Risen archer then proceeded on to help Vaike and Chrom finish off their target. The two cavaliers were now outbound again to scout for more Risen.

Chrom approached her, sporting only a single cut on his exposed arm. "Oh, good work taking care of those Risen. I thought you may have needed help."

"Same to you." Robin replied, cracking a smile at their small victory. "Wait, you did get help."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, it was not necessary though."

"Judging by the fact you're injured, I would say it was." She remarked.

"It's only a small nick."

"It's best you get it checked anyways," she pointed towards the rusty weapons Risen used. "those weapons don't look very clean."

"Good point. I'll see you later then." Chrom briefly waved as he left.

"Right."

Robin turned herself towards the road. Far off in the distance, she could see black shapes shuffling around, barely visible under the shadows of trees.

"That's not good."

* * *

Lissa kept her focus on the grisly cut, making sure she didn't mess the mending process. The wound slowly closed off as she kept pouring her magic into it. The green crystal on the staff she held glowed ever so slightly.

"There. Your wounds are gone."

Frederick nodded in appreciation and moved aside to let the next person be examined.

The princess looked at her line of patients and then checked her staff again. "Next!"

Dominic moved beside her on the back of the wagon, having left the device for others to play. The frantic button mashing continued behind him as the three people continued playing video games.

He sat down to witness Lissa close Vaike's numerous cuts, one at a time. The magic used perplexed him. Something so useful surely could have been discovered or made back on earth.

"Vaike, you're okay now."

"It's Teach!" Vaike remarked as he left.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Sometime later when Lissa finished healing her last patient, Dominic finally decided to speak his mind. "Hey Lissa? How does the healing work? I forgot to ask last time but, I've never seen it before."

"Huh? That was your first time seeing healing magic?" She put her staff down. "Your world doesn't have any magic?"

He shook his head. "Nope, never saw any. There were people throwing around the idea but they were only ideas."

"That's odd. I remember every continent has at least some form of it."

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, we never discovered magic. We used science for our problems instead."

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away? What does galaxy mean?"

Dominic looked up.

Lissa followed his gaze for a moment, then shielded her eyes from the burning glare of the sun. "How far is it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. We came from another world entirely."

"Not having any magic must have sucked."

"Well, kinda."

"Hmm?" Lissa hopped off the wagon and saw people gathered around Robin.

Pausing to listen for a moment, she managed to take out bits of their conversation. From what she could piece together, they were discussing how to move forward with Risen around.

"If you think about it, having some people be able to use magic makes it hard on society. Random people are empowered and it doesn't do that much out of combat, from what I've seen. Except healing for healing magic, of course." The scotsman answered, taking a peek out of the wagon as well. "It would have just created more problems than it's worth, really."

"Wouldn't magic still be very useful though? It makes fighting easier."

Dominic contemplated, watching the Shepherds leave with Hugo and Julien in tow. "Well, I don't know. We don't exactly have bandits or zombies to fight. And that's if the bandits themselves don't have magic."

"True. But there are other spells out there, you know? Those that aren't for fighting."

"Well I haven't seen any yet."

"I think I may show you some sometimes. They're fun for pranks."

His face lit up, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "You've got my attention."

"I can't right now. We aren't in a safe place and I don't want to exhaust my magic too quickly."

"Not a problem."

She peered back into the wagon. Sumia was now taking her turn, settling down on one of the barrels. "I guess we just wait now?"

"Yeah. Doesn't look like they're going to need us." He turned his attention towards Lissa. "Hey, would you mind teaching me how it works?"

"I don't. When would you like to start?"

The two people beside Sumia cheered. "Well, now seems like a good time. They're not going to finish soon, I think."

"I kind of want to watch, though."

Dominic followed her gaze. "I don't think we can really fit in there."

Lissa pouted. "I want to play later then."

"Sure. If there's enough battery left."

"Battery? Can you explain it to me later?"

"Alright. After you tell me how healing works."

* * *

Chrom looked at the large group of Risen that Robin was pointing at. The undead were wandering around, still unaware of their presence on the other side of the river. She suggested using the bridge as a chokepoint to remove any numbers advantage from the Risen, but he still had doubts about fighting on the wooden platform.

For now, though, they were on the western hilltop to get a better view of the area. It wasn't that far from the bridge yet it also provided them with a fantastic picture of their undead opponents.

"Any other ideas?" He said, eyeing a particularly large one. He did not want to be hit by that thing's axe. It looked very sharp and jagged, and the apparent bone helmet didn't help either.

"Well we could use Julien's rifle." Hugo suggested.

Robin turned around and arched an eyebrow. "Can it really reach that far? I don't know of anything other than siege weapons that can attack from this range."

"You didn't see where Julien was at the last fight?"

She shook her head.

"Oh. Alright, Julien, can you snipe some of these guys?"

Julien shrugged and adjusted his glasses. The distance was around two hundred meters; it was well within range of his battle rifle. "I can try."

"He thinks he can hit them from here." Hugo translated.

"Try it then, I don't see any problem."

After gaining the blond man's approval, Julien inserted his earplugs and took off the weapon's safety. He took his time to lock his sights onto the closest Risen's head, making sure his weapon was as stable as possible.

Hugo briefly turned towards the others. "You should cover your ears."

The Shepherds standing nearby obliged. Some even backed off a few meters, more wary of the weapon's obscene levels of noise than others.

_**BANG**_

They could briefly see the Risen flop down before disintegrating into ashes.

"Nice," Robin whistled in appreciation, lowering her hands. "How much ammunition do you have?"

The blond man did some quick mental math. "Should be thirty-nine now."

"Right. Use the rifle to pick off anything big then," She gestured for everyone to follow. "We will handle the rest."

"Aight. Good luck." He waved as they left.

Chrom raised his sword as he departed towards the bridge. "Same to you!"

As the Shepherds walked in a loose formation, Robin tapped his shoulder. "Looks like the Risen are on the move."

He craned his head past the bridge and saw that indeed, some of the undead monsters had begun making their way towards them. The Risen would get there first. However, if they ran-

"We should head to our choke-point quickly. We can make it to the bridge and hold them off at our end."

Chrom nodded and went ahead of the group to address everyone. "Get to our side of the bridge before the Risen do!" He commanded.

"Aye, capt!" Vaike answered, taking off in a sprint. Behind him, Frederick dragged Virion on his horse and took off after the shirtless man. The two other cavaliers followed suit, with one of them adding Miriel to horseback.

The prince briefly looked back as he ran towards the bridge. He saw the small flash of light and signature bark of the rifle. His eyes followed where Julien's weapon was pointed, finding the man's target already disintegrating into dust. Hiring them was definitely a good choice.

Robin matched his speed, staying beside him. "Chrom. How far do you think the Risen has spread? This is the second group we have encountered so far."

"Not sure. We discussed it at the meeting but we were still getting more reports in. It's going to take some time to assess how bad this really is."

"Unfortunate. Has anything like this happened before?"

"No." Chrom grimaced. They need help from Regna Ferox as soon as possible to protect the citizens of Ylisse. It was going to take them at least a week or two to arrive, not to mention getting the help in the first place.

* * *

"Nice." Hugo commented, watching the zombie disappear.

The two men were taking cover behind a fallen tree log. Their position provided the marksman with an excellent view that covered the bridge and the area around it. From there, they could easily spot and target enemies, knocking them down from hundreds of meters away.

The rifleman took a moment to admire the scenery, a beautiful hilly landscape with many groves of trees dotting the yellow-green small ruins of fortifications on each side of the old wooden bridge added to the view, making it even more rustic.

Julien smirked and lined up another target. The full rifle cartridge kicked but it didn't matter. Recoil was not an issue when firing single shots, especially with extra time to aim.

The rifle barked again, buttstock slamming into his shoulder.

"Miss. Aim right a bit." His spotter notified, prompting him to adjust his aim.

His target, an archer, looked around, trying to find the culprit of the bullet zipping past it. The moment it returned to lining up an arrow against the cavaliers on the bridge, he squeezed the trigger.

_**BANG**_

His blond friend squinted. "Hit. Aim at the big one, to the right by about 10 meters."

Julien switched targets.

* * *

When he arrived, the fight was already well underway. The four people that rushed ahead were holding off the Risen from the end of the bridge, negating their number advantage as they filed in two by two into their killzone. However, their archer and mage were having a bit of trouble shooting over their teammate's shoulders as they tried to help from the back.

"Miriel, Virion, move to the sides of the bridge. Chrom, we're going to go help the frontline." Robin ordered, immediately noticing the problems they faced.

"As you wish, Milady." Virion briefly bowed his head and flanked right for a better angle. Miriel, meanwhile, went the other way.

Chrom nodded and followed her into the melee. He moved into a spot between Robin and Vaike, finding a small spot just big enough to swing his sword, albeit with difficulty. A Risen made itself known as it screamed towards him, each footstep creaking on the rotten wood of the bridge.

An arrow intervened, staggering the undead slightly. He took the opportunity created from the flamboyant archer and made a well-aimed stab into the neck.

"Thank you!" He uttered, pulling his sword out.

The prince's eyes narrowed as he examined the disintegration of the Risen in broad daylight. It decayed from the severed neck downwards and left behind only their metallic equipment. The night they first encountered these monsters, he remembered that they turned into mist. It was quite odd because the one in front of him was turning into dust instead.

He didn't have much more time to ponder before another Risen was upon him, weapon raised.

With no room to deflect lest it hits someone next to him, he parried the axe. He managed to catch it on Falchion but the sheer power from the blow made him grit his teeth in pain. Chrom dug in his heels and pushed the weapon back, before following it up with his own attack. His vertical slash caught the Risen on the shoulder but did not bite deeper than rotten flesh.

Chrom rushed in with a follow up strike towards the neck before it had another chance at hitting him. His sword made an unsightly noise as it tore the undead's head off.

He saw an arrow sail past his shoulder.

"AHHH!"

"Vaike!"

"Teach's fi-" He was hit by another arrow. " -Argh! Not fine!"

"Stahl, get him back to the convoy for healing, quickly!"

"Got it!"

Over his other shoulder, Chrom found Robin backing away from a spearman. The Risen was pushing her back and at a pace where she couldn't deploy her magic. A moment later, a fireball struck it from the side. Thinking they wouldn't mind more help, he ran in from behind and swiftly decapitated the red-eyed monster.

She nodded in his direction. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Robin waved back to Miriel.

Satisfied with the results, Chrom looked at the quickly thinning Risen group. Most of the Risen frontline had been stopped and destroyed, and now only a few of the undead remain. Two of the three left were archers, but he could tell that even those were far fewer in number than before.

And that was before one of them suddenly jerked its head back and began disappearing.

"Frederick, Sully. Clean them up please. Everyone else, let's go get some rest." Robin ordered.

"Understood." "Gotcha!"

Chrom rolled his shoulders to ease off the pain. Stopping attacks from Risen had quickly taken a toll on his muscles.

"Do you need a vulnerary?"

"No, Robin. I'm fine. It's just a little muscle pain."

He turned towards the decaying bridge, and the broken and rusted weapons that lay upon it.

"Who knows how far this infestation has spread," He said, sheathing Falchion. "There may be Risen in Regna Ferox too."

She followed his eyes. "All the more reason to arrive sooner then."

"I do feel a bit bad about requesting aid when they might have troubles with Risen too."

"I think they will be fine. You told me yesterday that the Feroxi are a warrior people."

"True. But fighting them is tricky. It may be easy for us since we have a good tactician and equipment."

"I don't think I contributed that much to the fight."

Chrom shrugged. He normally struggled to get a good view of fights and had trouble putting people in the right places. "You did more than I could. Plus, you're only going to get better with each battle."

"Well, I better do more studies on tactics then." She sighed.

He dug inside his brain for suggestions more useful than studying more. Reminding himself of the people he hired alongside her, he pointed out; "What about talking with the leader of the people with guns? Maybe he has some good insights."

Robin hummed in agreement as she watched the last Risen drop its bow, and fall unto dust. "Good idea. They might have something different than Ylisse's tactics books. Not that they're bad. I just need something to help myself understand how their guns work."

"Understandable." Chrom nodded. "On another topic, you have only begun to read those books a few days ago, correct? How did you finish so many so quickly?"

"I didn't. I read the first few but the other ones I only had the chance to quickly skim through. However, I managed to put together a foundation of the basics of fighting from what I read so far." She searched within her coat and found a few parchments riddled with text and drawings. She shuffled them around to show him the first page.

From what scribbles he _could _understand, it describes how Ylissean infantry was supposed to fight. The parchment was so jam-packed with information that it was near impossible to read.

"That is frighteningly fast." He muttered, thoroughly impressed. He had not even finished the first book. Although that may be due to him being much more attached to training with Falchion.

"Do you want me to help?"

Chrom thought for a moment, wondering if he should really accept the offer. Reading books all day and trying to understand things inside them was tiresome and difficult. At the same time, he didn't want to upset her and rely too much on her.

He hummed in reply. "Uh, maybe. I shall see."

* * *

Tristan took the plaster off his arm, rubbing the last itches off. The scar of that friendly fire incident marred his arm, but the injury had healed rather well. And luckily, it was only a flesh wound. His bones were untouched when he was struck by the shotgun's projectiles, so he could still do some work even when injured. The three straight lines showed the direction of the pellets as they grazed him, oddly reminding him of claw marks.

He flexed his muscles and found them to be in working condition, although the time held unmoving made him lose some of his muscle memory and flexibility.

"How's yer' arm?" A now familiar voice asked as it entered the _ISS San Pellegrino_'s reclaimed medical bay.

"Looks good."

"Aight. By the way, do ye know where that guy wearing grey pants is? The one tha' looks angry all the time."

"Do you mean Qihao? He's in the quargo- sorry cargo bay with Gilles right now. Why do you ask?"

"Brigands are comin' again."

Tristan cursed. "How long until they get here?"

"Err… A few _minus- meinut- minutes_? How do ye' pronounce these things?" The farmer replied, crinkling his face, trying to dig up the lessons learned from the terrans.

"Yes. It's minutes." The blond man stood up and chuckled. He ran past Donnel. "Follow me, we're gonna get the others!"

The local man followed him past the many cramped corridors, occasionally needing to slow down to avoid stepping on things. The many marvels they possessed impressed him. Even more so when none of their tools or objects required magic to work. The few items they could spare to the village helped immensely, and apparently the terrans were working towards being able to make more of them.

He glanced at a broken pile of still-shining metals, undoubtedly once a high quality item. The sheer amount of interesting and arcane objects in the ship had once baffled him and still makes him pause, even weeks later of interaction with their _technology_.

He shook off his train of thought and reminded himself that he was here to get their help defending the settlement once more.

* * *

Robin took another bite out of her _absolutely delectable _meal. The grilled piece of mauler spilled out juice each bite she took, filling her mouth with flavour. The warm atmosphere of a campfire shielded her from the cold night and only served to further her already high opinion of the camping site they picked for the night. The trees that surrounded them cast shadows, hiding beasts of the night, but the fire created a lit sanctuary that prevented the creatures from ever nearing them.

Sat on a nearby foldable chair, Lissa swallowed the rest of her bread. "How do you stomach that thing?" She asked, cringing a bit as the tactician gleefully took another bite.

"It's delishious!" Robin replied, happily chewing her meal.

"It tastes worse than old boots!"

The tactician paused, and ripped off a small piece of meat off hers. She then slowly, menacingly, advanced upon the princess.

Lissa stared at her, wondering what she was up to. "Robin?"

"Hey, Robin? Are you alright?" She tried again.

Horror began slowly seeping into her as she realized Robin's intentions. She tried to back up, but the chair prevented her from escaping.

"They said you never know until you try!"

"HELP!"

Lissa flailed around helplessly in her chair, trying to delay her inevitable doom at the hands of Robin's food. The item grew ever closer with each step the tactician took, the tender piece of the meat hanging from her hand. The glistening moisture of the steak was highlighted by the glow of the campfire, mocking her distress.

* * *

Hugo stared at the two people from across the campfire. How they were making such a big fuss from a piece of bear meat amused him, and some others too, judging from the occasional chuckle. The rest of the Shepherds were setting up their tents.

A cold breeze washed over him, courtesy of the cool night.

He reached above the fire and rubbed his hands together, relishing the warmth it brought him. He looked beside him and found a disgruntled man sitting on the grass, looking at him oddly.

"Garrick?"

"Whaddya want?" The former brigand grunted back.

"Why are you staring?"

"Yer' rubbing your hands together like someone who's scheming something." He pointedly accused.

Hugo stretched his arms. "Well I'm not really doing that. I feel too tired to think much. I'm actually just warming my hands up."

"By doing that?"

"Yes."

Garrick copied his actions, rubbing his hands together over the fire. A warmth then began spreading out from his hands.

He blinked in surprise. "Huh. It does work."

They sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the campfire. The two girls opposite of them blurred into the background, masked by the crackling fire.

Hugo laid himself back on his chair and stared up. The night sky was lit with bright shining stars. He looked around, seeing if he could find the North Star. He searched through the endless beacons of light, scanning for any bright stars that may give him some sense of normalcy.

There were no constellations he knew.

Home was so far.

The realization he would never return to Earth set in once more, stabbing him with melancholy.

He sighed.

"That tired?"

"Just... remembering things."

"Well I'd like to know what those things are."

Hugo remained thoughtful, taking his time to formulate a response.

"What would you do, if you could never return home? Not because you're rejected from your family, or leaving it, but just can't return."

Garrick laid back on his chair too, his gaze wandering off in the starry night sky. "Mhm. I would try to enjoy it. I don't think they'd let me live if I went back to Plegia. They don't like bandits and guys who work with Ylisse. "

"And you're both."

He nodded.

"So you're stuck with prince Chrom."

"What's the harm with trying to enjoy it? I might as well have fun before I die. I don't have any other ideas."

"I guess. And at the same time, if you don't act against him, you'll be pardoned and then you can live in Ylisse."

"Yep."

"Not a bad deal. You can start a new life."

"Maybe. I don't know how long it takes until he throws me in a fight that I can't hope to win."

"That depends. I don't think he's the type of person to make people go on suicide missions. And if you're nice to him, I don't think he's going to make you suffer for no reason."

Garrick turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a good judge of character. Trust me."

He grunted in response, not fully believing him.

* * *

Donnel eyed the four dead bandits scattered around on the street, their bodies riddled with projectiles.

When the terrans arrived on scene to stop them, the ruffians were occupied trying to grab whatever they could from the nearby stalls. They didn't notice the newcomers emerging from the darkness of an alleyway, weapons drawn.

Most of them didn't get a glance of their assailants. The last one barely screamed bloody murder before he was blasted alongside his allys.

The farmer looked at his fork, wondering if he should just return to farming. His hands were shaking and his legs felt weak.

Donnel sat down beside one of the stalls to steady himself.

It was the third time over the last five days that brigands set foot in town. The first was easily handled by the three man militia, as there was only a pair of lost bandits. Next time they struck however, they raided the village with an organised group of ten. Needless to say, the militia was cut down immediately. When the terrans finally got word of the attack, they pushed back the bandits from alleyway to alleyway. The fighting lasted hours as he guided them around the area, carefully clearing out each hiding spot.

In the time he was thinking about the past raids, the village elder had approached the terrans.

"Thank you for helping out the village. What can we offer you for compensation?" He heard the elder ask.

"_Salvage_ rights. Weapons, armor, bodies and other equipment on them. " Qihao clarified crisply, gesturing towards the corpses.

"Of course. You were the ones who defeated them. Anything else?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Are you sure you don't want any compensation? You've saved the village two times already."

"We are already getting food and lodging from the village. Defending it is the least we can do."

"Then we shall thank you for your generosity."

Qihao nodded. "Thank you too, for providing for us."

The village elder left to attend to other matters, leaving them alone.

Donnel stood back up, and watched the fallen raiders being stripped of useful gear. He noticed one of the terrans leave, no doubt to collect a cart to move the bodies. After a while, they piled weapons and armor on one side of the cart and put the bodies on the other. It was nice of them to get rid of the corpses for the village's sake.

Before they returned to their 'base' with the salvage, the asian man summoned his attention.

"Hey Donnel, could we speak to you later? There is a request we want to make."

"'Aye, sure."

"Meet us in the ship, in the main lounge."

"Could ye' give me time to tell me ma'?"

"Of course. We'll see you there." Qihao saluted and rejoined his fellow terrans. Donnel watched them leave, glowing stick in hand.

* * *

Some hours later after the raid, eleven men of the spaceship crew plus Donnel were gathered around a table. They were huddled over the massive half-a-meter long tablet usually reserved for tabletop roleplaying games. On the screen was a sketch of the village and its surroundings. Other settlements were marked by dots on the end of roads with markers estimating the distance between them. A fort was doodled on the north-west of Farfort.

The makeshift map wasn't accurate by any means, but it provided a way to better understand the area.

"Hey Donnel, are you sure that there's a fort here?" Egor asked, pointing towards the doodle.

"Yea'. I've been there when I was younger."

"How big is it then?"

Donnel pondered for some time, punctuated by a string of "Errrrr-", before he dug up his brief and spotty memory of the place. "I think it's almos' as big as yer' home."

Qihao tapped the fort icon, taking the attention of everyone. "Then this is where the bandits should be hiding. In two days, we will hit the camp at noon, when they are most likely eating. We'll sweep the area and take over any assets that we can capture." He turned towards the young farmer. "Donnel, could you guide us to the area? We'll handle most of the fighting."

"No problem sir!"

"Thank you."

"It's fine. I jus' wanna keep ma' village safe."

Tristan took his eyes off the map and crossed his arms. "Who's going besides Donnel and you?"

The asian in charge looked around, eyeing the gathered men. "I want you, Gilles, Baichao, Anton and Egor to come with us." He answered, gesturing with each name. "Everyone else stays. We don't have enough weapons for everyone so the defending group will need to use whatever they can get in case we get hit here during the attack. Lucas, you're in charge of the defense. Lock down the ship if necessary."

"Got it."

"And please, don't take all the snacks you fat fuck."

The slightly chubby man laughed. "Yeah sure."

Qihao sighed. He sincerely wished they took it more seriously. Maybe all the time they'd fought in space gave everyone this much confidence. "For this operation, we will be moving out as members of the recently founded QI private military company. Any salvage that we can obtain from the hostile takeover of the fort will remain ours."

He heard snickers from his friends. '_Why did I need to say this with a straight face again?'_ He thought.

"Wait so we're now a PMC?" Egor asked, the exception that did take things seriously.

"Yes. We've been protecting the village for the past week, and with our much more advanced technology, we can defeat almost any opponent in this medieval-era like world. We also needed to find a way to obtain more funds while Hugo and some others are off working with the prince." He answered

"Right." The blond man nodded in acknowledgement, understanding that they couldn't get the materials to expand or repair their facilities otherwise.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yea'!"

"What is it Donnel?"

"Can I tell me ma'? She'll be worried about this."

"No. Your alibi for going with us will be a hunting trip as there may be insiders hiding in the village."

"But me ma' won't be tellin' anyone!"

"Don't you think she'll be worried about you running off with a bunch of fourty year-old men to fight bandits?"

The farmer froze for a moment, suddenly thinking about his parent's perspectives. He cringed in understanding. "I don't like lyin'."

"Well, technically you are off hunting with us, except that we are hunting bandits rather than animals."

Donnel remained silent, still quite uneasy.

Tristan put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey Donnel, it's fine if you don't come with us."

He thought about the risks of fighting those bandits, of dying in battle without telling his mother. However, if he didn't go, they might get lost and this group that protected the village would be crippled. He internally debated but his desire to protect the village and helping these people won out.

With renewed resolve, he stared back at the men around the table. "I'm comin' with ya."

Qihao nodded in acknowledgement. "Operation Gatecrasher is in two days. We will be moving out as members of QI private military company. Rally at the central plaza with weapons, ammunition and the cart. Dismissed."

The men of _ISS San Pellegrino_ tiredly filed out the room, intent on catching a good night's rest. Donnel joined them in the exit, quickly running past them to prevent his mother from worrying.

The last ones remaining in the room were Qihao, Tristan and Lucas.

"Lucas, do you think you can manage holding off bandits if the village is attacked?" The asian commander asked.

Lucas scratched his dark brown hair. "Maybe? We'll have to see how many."

"I mean, if they just raided recently and lost a lot of people, I don't think they're going to be trying to attack the village again." Tristan mused.

"You never know. Just in case." Qihao said.

"Well if it goes bad we'll hide inside the ship and wait for you guys to come back." Lucas replied.

The blond man clapped his hands. "Right. We should go to sleep then. We have everything planned."

"Yeah sure." The chubby man tiredly picked himself up.


	7. Gatecrasher (Chapter 6)

The group continued their march along the path to Regna Ferox, some of them continually complaining about the trip. Chrom ignored them, simply wanting to get it over with as soon as he could so his ears would stop hurting from the constant whining. A small price to pay for firepower. What was less enjoyable though, was the slowly chilling weather as they headed up north. It meant they were nearly to the border, but he was definitely less enthralled by the freezing temperatures there.

Over the right plains, he spotted a white shape in the distance. There wasn't anything remarkable about the white spot, until he thought about it further. The fact of the matter was: There was something in the distance, and definitely not a plant. On a second glance it definitely was a creature; It was moving.

He didn't think about the time he took staring at it, trying to figure out what it was. Thankfully, Robin noticed his gaze and came to his side. She followed his eyes and squinted, seemingly spotting the same thing and proving it wasn't a hallucination.

"Chrom, are you looking at that white spot in the distance?"

"Yes. I'm glad I'm not just imagining things."

"I think we should check it out. We can make a stop nearby to take a break and see if it's anything dangerous." She proposed, turning towards him for his approval.

There definitely was merit to find out what it was; If it was Risen they needed to get rid of it for the populace. Otherwise they might find some lost animal or person and help them get back to their home.

"Alright." He nodded.

* * *

The group walked for another long while, slowly treading the path towards Regna Ferox. The forest and steep hills gave way to an open plain, cut off to the west by a mountain range. By this time, they should be quite close to the white _thing_. It was right over the small mound over to the east, just past their line of sight.

"Shepherds, we're stopping to take a break!" He shouted over the chatter, wrestling their attention over to him.

The group dispersed, ceasing their march to rest on the ground. The open field beside the road was soft and comfortable, and under the afternoon sun, warmer than the northern cold air. Most sat down on the grass, resting their tired legs and basking under the warmth of the sunlight.

Hugo watched Julien tinker with one of their odd trinkets, a flat white square as long as his arm. The marksman's expression brightened visibly when he managed to unfold it, revealing two sets of deep blue reflective tiles on the inside. He took out a black rope from his pockets and connected it with the blue object used for 'gaming'. Julien then put it on a tablecloth they insisted they bring.

When they were seemingly done, Chrom approached them. "Hugo, there's something that we wish to examine nearby. Could you accompany us?"

* * *

Dominic waited for the old camera to boot up, the model already decades old but preserved by careful and thorough maintenance. The black device hummed to life, presenting him with a small '_beep' _as the startup process was completed.

The little princess watching over his shoulder 'Ooo'ed' in amazement.

"What does it do?" She asked excitedly, wanting to discover more functions of the terran trinkets. The pranks she could make if there was just _something _she could use would be otherworldly!

"It takes videos and photos. Imagine what you see here, put into a recording where you can look at it again."he felt a shiver down his spine, something he knew wasn't just a random sensation. He honed his mind and detected its origin. "_My shipping senses are tingling. _Follow me." He motioned, moving into a low crouch.

Lissa made to ask him about the camera but was silenced by a finger. Seeing that he was serious about this thing called 'shipping', she followed.

* * *

The blond man turned his head to answer. "Uh. Sure. Is it dangerous?"

"Maybe. If it's Risen, we'll come back and call everyone."

Hugo said something to his terran companion then stood up. A moment later, he remembered to pick up his shotgun, taking it from the tablecloth.

"Alright. Just us two?"

Chrom turned his head towards the ivory haired tactician currently speaking with Sumia. The brunette held her hands over her chest, trying to convince her of something. "No. Robin's coming with us."

They waited for a few more seconds before the two women finished their conversation. Robin led Sumia towards them, the brunette waving sheepishly when their attention landed on her. Once they were inside speaking distance, Sumia tripped on a stone and was sent into a collision course with the ground. Chrom caught her and put her back on her feet.

"Are you alright, Sumia?" He asked in concern, aware to not remark on her odd quirk. She was already like that when she was much younger, tripping on little objects and sometimes even nothing.

"Yes, yes. I'm fine, captain." She flushed, staring at her feet.

"Chrom, is it fine if Sumia accompanies us?" Robin pushed, deciding to take the attention off of her.

"I see no issues with it."

They walked for some time, cresting the small hill east of the convoy. The trip was easygoing and peaceful, letting them enjoy the pleasant, although slightly chilly weather of northern ylisse. Even Sumia was distracted enough by the landscape to somehow not trip a single time on the kilometer-long travel.

Chrom smiled when she found something in the distance and excitedly pointed to it. He didn't see what it was, but the scenery from the iced mountaintop contrasting with green vegetation at its base provided more than enough of a reason to look that way.

Robin was smiling beside him, staring at the same landscape. He then looked over his other shoulder.

Hugo was missing.

However a quick glance behind him told him that the blond man was only standing still to enjoy the scenery. There shouldn't be any problem with a bit of sightseeing, as any threat would be spotted easily before they could reach them because of their higher ground and open fields. He left him to his own thoughts and followed Sumia.

Only a few minutes later, his eyebrows shot up when he saw the 'white dot': A white horse-like creature with a pair of wings. It was adorned with blue cloth and even had a helmet, but the saddle was empty. A pegasus, riderless, in the middle of nowhere.

It whinnied at them and tapped the ground with its front hooves.

"Oh, it's a pegasus alright." Chrom voiced in surprise, stopping before it.

However when he tried to move closer to find any identification, it kicked out its front hooves and forced him back. He narrowed his eyes, staring back at the hateful eyes of the pegasus.

It huffed.

"Don't move close. The beast is crazed!"

"What is it doing here? Did it lose its rider?" Robin asked, taking a spot next to him in the man's staredown against the animal.

"Perhaps. Should we search around?"

She glanced to the sides. "No. We should have seen him or her by now."

Sumia circled the animal, checking it from each side. Barely concealed by the blue cloth was a gash on its side, going up from the flank all the way to its wings. She visibly cringed and waved their attention over.

"It looks like it's hurt." She noted distressingly.

"Don't approach it. It might kick you." Another, older voice replied. The blond man caught up to them as they focused their attention on the injured pegasus. The man's eyes briefly went wide in surprise when he realized that the wings weren't a hallucination. His expression quickly turned serious when he saw the partially exposed wound Sumia pointed towards.

"I'll go get Lissa."

As Hugo took off to fetch their healer, Sumia moved closer to the pegasus, ignoring their warnings.

Chrom waited in bated breath for the pegasus' reaction. It stared at her as she slowly approached, waiting for any sudden movement.

When she reached the creature, the brunette calmly and slowly uttered words of comfort while rubbing its head. The pegasus closed its eyes and let her, even going so far as to crane its neck around her to let her rub the other side.

"Sumia, I didn't know you were this good with animals." Robin commented, watching with interest. "Can I pet the pegasus too?"

Sumia cooed as she ran a hand through its mane. "Of course! She would be happy for more affection."

Robin took the other side, following her friend's movements. It huffed in satisfaction, as another hand ran through its mane. The pegasus wrapped its wings over both women, giving them its own brand of affection as they were pressed against it in an improvised hug.

It was great to watch.

However, Chrom didn't get the chance to watch both women fawn over the pegasus for long before someone else called for his attention.

"_CHROM YOUR SISTER AND DOMINIC WERE STALKING US!" _Hugo called out from behind another hill.

"_We were just passing by!" _Lissa replied.

"_Then why the hell were you two lying prone with a camera?!"_

The prince pinched his nose, muttering a single "Damn it." under his breath. He would need to question them later.

* * *

_Afternoon, North-West of Farfort._

Donnel looked around as he led the 'hunting' group, searching for a tree mark on the side of the dirt road. His boots crunched each time he took a step unlike the terrans' footwear, creating a simple rhythm. It allowed him to calm his hammering heart slightly by letting him focus on the sound, rather than the thoughts of going up against more brigands. His previous encounters were already plenty terrifying, and this time they'd be going against an entire camp.

There. Nearly hidden on one of the trees was a sideways arrow sign scratched onto the trunk, a mark created ages ago, when he was much younger and able to venture much more freely.

He walked up to it, brushing a hand over the sign. "Tha' fort should be 'round here."

The terrans scanned the surroundings, trying to find a structure among the dense forests covering each side of the road. When it was obviously a hopeless endeavour, one of them approached the guide.

"Are you sure?" Qihao asked, stopping beside him.

"Yea'." Donnel looked towards where the sign pointed.

"How far is it?"

He thought for a moment. The best he could come up with was how long it took him. He didn't know the distance by heart, having only been here once or twice earlier in his life. And especially since these people use a different system, it was almost impossible coming up with even an estimation.

"Er… Maybe half-n-hour?" He finally answered.

"Understood. Lead the way."

He nodded.

The man turned to say something to his comrades, but he only understood the words 'cart' and 'leave'. He then realized what they meant as they brandished their weapons and followed him, leaving the cart and horse behind.

"Are you sure you want to follow us into combat? We can handle the fighting ourselves." Tristan asked.

Donnel glanced at their black firearms, a reminder that their saviors were from another continent and completely different. Yet, they helped the village in dire times and never took much more than they needed.

He took a deep breath and led them forward.

"Yea'. It's tha' least I can do."

* * *

Qihao peeked above the bush, exposing himself for only a second before he ducked back under. The bandit was still there, lounging around on the outside of the fort ruins. Behind a nearby fallen tree log was his comrades waiting in bated breath for a signal.

They had already waited for ten tension-filled minutes after travelling here. Getting spotted before any actual preparation would be a death sentence because they had no intel on how many brigands were in the fort. The forest provided them with cover and concealment on their approach but was quickly thinning out near the ancient structure.

The brigand finally looked away.

The asian man pointed two fingers to his eyes then to the bandit, telling his squadmates to watch. He then moved from concealment to concealment, slowly bounding the one hundred meter gap that separated him from his target.

_crack_

Qihao swore internally, realizing he stepped on a twig. No chance the bandit didn't hear it.

"'Ey! Who goes thar'!"

He heard heavy footsteps approach him. The small bushes around him provided some concealment, and the camouflage clothing he always wore should help in keeping him hidden. However, those elements wouldn't help if he got too close.

The asian engineer crouched behind another bush when he saw the shadow. Line of sight was to be his savior now. He heard another footstep round the bush, and quickly moved to flank the brigand. He had no clue if his teammates have been spotted, but he'd have to trust them not to fuck it up.

"Must be an' nimal again."

His sneakers were true to their name as he silently slipped behind the burly, shirtless ruffian. The shotgun would make short work of his target, but it would also alert the entire camp. In addition he needed to act fast, any second the bandit would turn around and botch the entire operation.

His utility knife would be suitable. Qihao unsheathed it as he snuck up behind his target.

The blade was immediately jammed in the man's throat, and then the shotgun was locked around in a chokehold by locking the barrel under the asian's other arm. The bandit struggled, threatening to easily overpower his assailant by brute force. Blood seeped into the man's lungs, taking away strength each second he tried to break free.

Eventually, the brigand stopped entirely.

Qihao dragged the corpse behind a bush and brushed off some of the blood that caught on his arms. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his friends move towards him. Tristan was already disgusted, and it was only the beginning of the operation.

He gestured to them to follow. More bandits were in the fort.

There weren't any patrols but these brigands shouldn't have the discipline to organise anyways. The man he just killed was most likely someone coming out for fresh air.

It was a lucky break, as no one noticed the missing man.

As of right now, no one was outside on their side of the fortress. The eastern four meter high stone wall spanned the entire width of the clearing before them, protecting the inside from the outside. However, those inside had no way of looking outside, unless one counted the gaps in the south of the eastern wall.

"Follow me and stay quiet." Qihao ordered, sprinting out of their concealment. He hit the wall next to the hole, keeping his weapon drawn on the opening. Anyone that would come out of the fort would be shot. He heard successive thumps of bodies hitting stone behind himself, letting him know his teammates followed.

The asian squad leader turned around briefly, whispering "Right guys. Plan is to breach the building and clear room by room. Someone translate for Donnel."

The asian squad leader waited for the message to be sent to the farmer. After the few tension filled seconds of awkwardly translated whispers passed by, he held up an open palm and waved it forwards.

It was the signal to advance.

Qihao rounded the corner first, weapon drawn.

* * *

Donnel swallowed the lump in his throat, the image of the merciless assasination of the brigand still fresh in his mind. He readjusted his pot helmet. Seeing the terrans calmly move from cover to cover and their wordless communication after such a thing spoke of their discipline. He could barely manage fighting one person without panicking, yet these people managed to turn a situation where the bandit would find them and alert the camp into a silent takedown.

The more he worked with them, the more aware he was of the gap between him and their experience. He hoped they could teach him. He wanted to learn how to do all the amazing things they could.

A tap on his shoulder snapped him out of his thoughts. Tristan looked at him concerningly, probably thinking he regretted coming with them. He needed to prove himself before they would accept him. Bringing the pot helmet again probably didn't

help his image.

"I'm fine." He answered, holding his spear tighter.

The blond man grimaced, visibly not quite believing the farmer barely in adulthood. However, Tristan moved into the gap in the wall anyways.

Donnel quickly followed in his wake.

Upon entering, the first thing visible was that the outer section, to their south, was nearly entirely broken down, more than half of the wall entirely missing. The south-western part was in such a bad shape that trees had grown past the gaps. The cobbled path that led out to the south and then towards the west seemed fine though, maybe even fixed recently.

Those were details he never noticed before, or had forgotten years ago.

He copied the terrans, following behind them as they stuck to the only intact side of the wall. The leader suddenly stopped their slow advance with a balled fist, causing them to freeze before the entryway that led into the inner parts of the fortifications. They waited for a response, each person occasionally glancing over the others shoulders, but the asian man just pointed his shotgun forwards and waited.

He then heard the footsteps too. Donnel held his breath, hoping that it wasn't someone looking for them.

The footsteps stopped.

"Rodd'ck is giv'n a speech aga'n?" A burly voice asked.

"Yup. Wants the bandits from the other day t'be avenged. Ask me though, I don't wanna try fightin' those ylisseans with weird magic." Another, lighter voice answered.

"Farfort?"

Donnel tensed upon hearing the name of his hometown. He tried to move forward, past the terrans, to hear better but was stopped by Qihao's arm. The asian man glared at him and gestured for him to get back in line. He stared back momentarily until the sheer anger of the man made him know it was a better idea to comply.

"'Aye. He wants us to raid Farfort. Wants us to get 'sum cages ready for some reason."

"Weird naga-damned person. Oh and, yer accent is off."

"Look, I don't want to do this stupid accent. There's no ylissean nearby that can hear us and we'll be gone after the next raid."

"Wer' 'ere to pretend to be bandits and to train them. Do 'yer job!"

The other person grumbled something in response.

"_Oy! You two over t'ere! Come 'nd help with tha' cages, will ya?"_ A third voice yelled from somewhere deeper in the fort."

"By Grima…" The person sighed. "Roddick, We're coming!"

"'yer accent!"

"Stuff it!"

They stopped arguing and let the clopping of boots on stone echo. The sounds became more distant by the second. The two bandits guarding the entrance were gone now, probably in another room.

Qihao did the same hand gesture before silently rounding the corner. His friends followed in his trail, entering the fortress' first intact room.

The next room contained two entrances, one of which they came in from. The walls were relatively untouched by time. He looked around the empty room, finding nothing of value. He didn't have long to gander before Tristan gestured for him to join. The terrans were doing the same thing as before, lining up beside the next entryway with their weapons drawn.

Qihao moved away from the front, stopping near the middle of the line.

"Tristan, Donnel, watch our rear. Everyone else will push up with me." He ordered, his words barely passable for whispers. "We're moving room by room now. Make sure we don't get separated."

"Right, got it." The blond man acknowledged, taking a position to the right of the entrance they came from. The man pointed his weapon down the short corridor whilst keeping most of his body hidden behind the wall.

Donnel nodded and moved to the left side of the same entryway, trying to do the same thing with his spear. When he looked beside him, he received a nod of approval from his comrade.

The asian man returned to the front of the attack group and asked for their readiness. The responses he received were positive.

Qihao peeked around the corner before quickly ducking his head back.

An arrow flew past him.

The man brandished his weapon tightly and dashed across to the other side of the room, past their entrance.

"OPEN FIRE!" He yelled, the order ringing with thunder as his weapon echoed inside the stone fortress.

The explosive sound of the weapon bounced off the stone walls, assaulting his ears even through his earplugs.

As he tried to focus past the echoing gunshot, two of asian's squadmates answered the man's order with their own weapons fire. As the rain of buckshot kept any return fire at bay, the last terran bounded across to join Qihao.

He gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the blood-curdling scream that accompanied the gunfire.

"_-round them!"_

A bandit suddenly barged into his view, axe pointed towards him. Donnel yelped as Tristan fired off a shot from beside him, throwing the burly man on the floor.

Another ruffian charged in not even a second later, stepping over his fallen comrade. This one carried a combination of sword and shield and was running at them with a vengeance.

Donnel steeled himself, thrusting his spear low to force the man back. It bought his ally time to rechamber another shell, something he wished could go faster.

The next shot rang out, tearing the shield apart and grazing the person behind it. However, it didn't have the same effect as previously since the person was still standing. The shield was lowered, revealing multiple bleeding wounds but no critical damage.

"Over 'ere lads! They can't pierce shields!" The brigand yelled.

Donnel cursed, thrusting his spear forwards. It managed to catch the man on the flank but only created a flesh wound. Noticing the issue, Tristan threateningly raised his empty shotgun at the brigands face, causing him to shield himself again. He took the opportunity his ally provided and pierced the chest of their opponent, rendering him ineffective as the brigand coughed out blood and lost any semblance of combat awareness.

"Thank ye!" The farmer said, yanking his weapon out.

The man fell down and tried to get up, but another thrust from his spear finished him off.

Beside him, the blond man rechambered another round and smiled back.

"Nah, I should be thanking you!" Tristan replied over the gunfire behind them.

They were only afforded a moment of respite as a trio of footsteps made their way towards them, somehow audible through the staccato of shotguns.

Donnel readjusted his pot helmet again. He lowered his spear, ready to hold off opponents while his ally caused havoc and destruction. The man beside him readied his own weapon, clicking another shell in place.

"We're pushing up!" Their asian squad leader ordered from behind them.

He froze. They could handle one or maybe two at a time, but three? They certainly couldn't defend against three ruffians, especially since one of them had called out to his allies the effectiveness of shields against buckshot.

A mage rounded the corner first, already chanting his spell. The ruffian's expression was pained, his concentration clearly inpaired by the loud gunshots constantly echoing off the walls. His hat and robes swayed as he stopped five meters in front of them to use the magical attack.

He didn't get a chance to use the red tome in his hands.

Just like the first bandit, he was thrown away by buckshot. And again, more came around the corner. This time, however, two came. One of them held a duo of wickedly sharp red axes with a shape he'd never seen before. The other one wielded a steel broadsword, the blade even wider than his first. Both were scarily muscled and menacing, what with their red face paint and little to no regard for normal clothing.

Tristan managed to pump out another shot on the swordsman, but he managed to block the worst of it with the sword. His face came mostly unscathed, but his chest and shoulders were still riddled with puncture wounds.

Seeing the swordsman hesitating to take the sword away from his face in case of a follow-up shot, Donnel took a deep breath. He threw his spear.

Simultaneously, the axeman threw one of his weapons at the blond man, clearly recognising the threat the firearm posed.

The spear landed just above the chest, punching through a cluster of blood vessels. Blood spurted out in droves.

Tristan saw the weapon coming and tried to dodge. It hit him anyways.

Both who threw their weapons watched their comrades fall, their actions surprising each other.

The bandit was the first to recover, narrowing his eyes at the young farmer.

Donnel could only stare back, terrified. He threw his only weapon while the man still had one.

Thankfully, the bandit didn't seem to want to rush him down. He managed to pique the man's interest.

"Name's Roddick. Yer's?"

"D-Don-nel." He stammered back.

Running wasn't a choice. He wasn't going to let a friend down. Plus, he would be abandoning one of those that saved his village from bandits. He had no weapons on hand, and the other terrans were away fighting other bandits.

Tristan grunted in pain, trying to get back up in vain. Blood spilled out from the axe wound, slowly staining the ground with crimson.

Things were not going well.

"Who're them men?" The bandit pointed towards Tristan. "They're clearly not ylissean dogs like yer are."

Donnel took a breath and steeled himself. He needed to buy time for the others to return. "No. They're not. But they have done more good for the world than you ever will."

Roddick laughed. "Good? Helping ylissean dogs like you?" The man laughed harder, his terrible accent grating the farmer's ears.

The bandit moved closer, still sporting a toothy grin. He moved past the terrified Donnel, standing over the wounded blond man. He knew that the farmer couldn't do anything with those relatively scrawny arms.

Tristan looked up in horror, shielding himself with his arms in a desperate attempt to block the weapon.

Roddick readied a downward swing, clearly intent on finishing him off. As the weapon was raised, the glare of the afternoon suddenly reflected from the metallic edge of the outlandishly shaped axe, blinding the axeman momentarily.

Donnel saw the man close his eyes. He was the only one close enough to save Tristan from death.

Time slowed down for him, each heartbeat seemingly an eternity. He needed to repay the village's debt to them and prove himself worthy to be taught their ways.

But he had no mystical weapon, no strength, no magic. Only years of farm experience, advice from his parents and a pot helmet.

He couldn't possibly win against the battle-harded bandit with those.

Unless…

He trusted his gut instinct and kicked out. He closed his eyes to focus on the force behind his legs, trying to squeeze every scrap of strength out of those limbs tempered by hard labour.

"AIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

It hit. Roddick dropped his axe, shielding his genitals with his hands and legs. The weapon landed dangerously close to Tristan, cutting off a lock of his hair.

Donnel moved in. There was no time to pick anything up. He needed to make the most out of the sneak attack and take the attention off of his comrade. His fists wouldn't cut it. He didn't have the strength to hurt him with punches.

He had to improvise an attack again.

The pot will do, he mused as he slipped his 'helmet' into his hands.

While the bandit was still reeling from the nut kick, Donnel bashed him in the face with the pot.

Again.

And again.

And again.

The bandit fell down on his back, pain hitting him in the face and genitals as he received another kick there when he tried to shield his face. He howled in pain each time he was hit, and the young farmer would just hit somewhere he wasn't protecting with his hands. Eventually though, Roddick realized he could easily block both with one arm each.

He kicked out Donnel's leg, sending him crashing down on the bandit.

The air was knocked out of the farmer's lungs, the bandit's quick recovery and counterattack blindsiding him completely. He let go of his pot mid throw, sending it flying off before it hit cobblestone with a loud 'clang'.

Pain exploded in his head shortly afterwards, a sudden head-bash follow-up disorienting him further.

He felt something ice-cold on his left fingers, barely out of his reach.

Then something kicked the metallic object into his hands, sending a fresh jolt of pain as he felt his fingers bleed. He heard a cry accompany the shove, but couldn't make heads or tails of what the voice was saying. His vision began blurring as blood dripped down from his forehead.

Donnel followed his screaming instincts.

He ignored the pain and grabbed the sharp object. He could barely see anything but knew exactly where to place it. The blade dug into his hands as he shoved it into the neck of the man under him, sending out a gush of blood from the side of his neck.

He yanked the weapon out and threw it away lest it was used against him.

It didn't matter, the choked gasps from below told him. He felt something hit his arm but either his adrenaline dampened it, or the brigand lost all his strength..

Probably both.

After a good minute, the background gunfire ceased. He stayed there, breathing heavily. He felt too shaken to do anything.

He saw a person round the corner. The man walked towards him, a long weapon at his side. Red muddied his sight, limiting him to only distinguish the silhouette of the person. He couldn't hear the footsteps come.

He did his best, even if it wasn't enough. He thought, resigned to his fate. Hopefully his village remembered him.

Then the person pulled an earplug off.

"Donnel do you fucking hear me?!" The voice demanded, somehow terrifying yet soothing at the same time. Two more came around the corner, no doubt also here to help them.

Donnel took deep breaths, recovering from his adrenaline haze. He felt pain hammer him across his body, but mostly on his left hand and his head. But ma' said that pain was good. It means you can feel your body and that your 'bits' were still there.

Everything should be fine now, they survived.

He shakily nodded, pushing himself back up with his good hand. The man helped him, lifting him up by the shoulders. His legs felt wobbly and he still couldn't think clearly, but one of the terrans steadied him, moving him so he could lean on the wall.

"Gilles, dress Tristan's injury. Egor, can you check him? Especially the head injury" Qihao ordered as he saw the blood on their bodies.

"Aye sir." The tall 'russian' responded, pulling out a roll of gauze. The man crouched beside him, trying to meet his eyes. "Donnel, do you still feel your hand?"

He looked down.

And barfed when he saw the bloody and mutilated face of Roddick.

He stood like that for a few more seconds, emptying the contents of his breakfast. He supported himself with his good arm, keeping himself from falling down on the corpse and the disgusting vomit.

Someone patted him on the back.

He was safe at least, Donnel thought as he coughed out the last of his stomach's contents.

* * *

The horse-drawn cart trudged steadily down the road back to farfort. The unhurt terrans walked alongside it, scanning every bush and tree on the side of the road in case there was an ambush. However, everything was quiet as they travelled, not even a single animal trying to test their patience. The atmosphere slowly shifted towards a comfortable feeling of fulfillment as they enjoyed their hard-fought victory.

The calm trip back felt like an odd contrast to the near-death experience he had an hour prior, but he liked the peace more than the chaotic fighting. He looked at his heavily bandaged hand, a reminder of the stunt he pulled off killing that bandit.

Donnel sighed in contemplation, wondering if he really should have joined them. Then again, Tristan might have died if he wasn't there. He shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position on the encumbered cart.

He saw Qihao suddenly move away from his escorting position and approach him. The man's furrowed brows took away the peace from him, but he remembered that it was Qihao's normal facial expression. He shrugged the ominous feeling off.

The terran handed him a scroll. "Donnel, can you read this?"

"Yea.."

He opened the rough parchment to look at the contents. Black text covered most of the page, complemented with a purple emblem to the top right. The first portion contained the names of people he didn't know, telling them that they were on a mission. When he read further, down it mentioned contacting a person called Roddick, among other names.

"Holy moly!" Donnel exclaimed after a good minute of reading and re-reading the scroll.

"What is it?" Qihao asked, walking beside the cart as he waited for his answer.

"Give the weapons to brigands'n train them. The money's for buying food'n extra equipment. Also raid'n pillage as many villages as possible in Ylisse. After fifty days, return to Plegia. Pretend to be ylissean. Do not let yerselves be discovered." He read out loud. "How could they do this? This is disgraceful!"

"That explains the massive pile of weapons in one of the rooms. They were oddly high quality for bandits. By the way, where's Plegia?"

"Neighbouring country to the west. They hate us for the last war."

"Ah. What happened?"

"Our previous Exalt went on a crusade and err… killed alotta plegians."

Qihao nodded in understanding. "So it's revenge."

"We need to tell the village elder!"

"Are you sure Donnel? It may be best if we simply don't tell this to the village so they don't panic or send us out in the hopes we somehow stop this problem."

"He can give the message to the Duke. And then the Duke will give it to the Exalt."

"If Plegia is capable of sending people to freely train bandits in the countryside, then the duke might already be on their side. We can't risk it."

"What if we sent it straight to the crown then. We haft'a let the Exalt know."

"Doesn't Ylisse not have a standing army?"

"No. But the Shepherds can defeat 'em."

"I doubt it. Last I checked they were around twelve people. That's not enough. Against how many bandits there are, I doubt they can win against those numbers. Even if we add in Hugo and the three others there just isn't enough manpower."

Donnel nodded, conceding the point. The Shepherds couldn't be everywhere at once. However, the terrans had almost as many people as the Shepherds, and their village was willing to lend help. "Aint'cha doing work as mercenaries now? Can't you help? The Shepherds can sweep one part of'tha country while ye keep bandits off 'ere"

"I doubt we can do anything against it. There's definitely more of these operations going on. Even if we work with the Shepherds and try to wipe them out, they'll just train more bandits. We don't have the resources to stop it. Add in the political side-effects of the Exalt learning of this and it might lead to war."

"Are ya sure it's gonna lead t'war? We've been at peace for almost twenty years now. Our Exalt does 'er best for peace."

"I mean if Plegia declares war instead."

"Well they don't have reason to."

"You mentioned the crusade. What if it's for revenge?"

Donnel remained in thought. They definitely could declare war for revenge, but their current Exalt was completely different than her father. The plegians surely understand this. But why would they arm and train bandits?

"Maybe it is for revenge." He sighed. "But there has to be ways we can stop the bandits. I don't want to have our village attacked again."

"I'm not an expert in politics, but I'm pretty sure all options lead to war if we tell anyone important."

Donnel searched his brain for an answer, but found none. He internally berated himself for being so powerless. After seeing how bloody and dangerous fighting was, he only wanted to protect his village. Perhaps he can barely do that.

Silence reigned over the group as they collectively thought about what they have just uncovered. The mood turned sour, ruining their previous feelings of achievement.

* * *

Tristan looked over to the farmer simmering in guilt, anger and an array of other negative emotions. He grimaced. The achievements of the young man were completely overlooked by the group. He was the only one that witnessed Donnel single-handedly fight and win against the bandit leader, without the need for a firearm.

He remained in thought for a few seconds before he dared break the silence.

"Qihao?"

"Yes?"

"Remember Roddick?"

"Who's Roddick?"

"The leader of the guys we just killed. Do you remember hearing the two bandits talk near the beginning of the raid? They were talking about their leader, apparently"

Qihao's face lit up with understanding a moment later. "Oh. I couldn't understand what they were saying. Their accent was bloody weird. Anyways, what about it?"

"Donnel killed him. And without using his spear either. He god-damned killed the man by stabbing him with his own axe."

Egor moved to the side of the cart, suddenly interested. "How did you do that?"

"Yeah, how did you?" Gilles asked, also interested.

"Err…" Donnel flushed in embarrassment as he received the sudden influx of attention.

Tristan came to his rescue, seeing his distress."Donnel, do you want to tell them?"

He nodded.

And thus, the swede began telling the tale of how Donnel turned the tables on the muscle-bound bandit using only his guts, a pot helmet and balls of steel. The listeners closed it on the cart, trying to devour each and every dramatic detail of the fight. Donnel tried to hide himself between his legs as Tristan glorified his every action, putting the spotlight squarely on him.

The matter of plegians training bandits in ylisse slowly left their minds, returning the atmosphere of post-victory accomplishment.

And Donnel's pot helmet was now considered a lethal weapon.

* * *

Chrom hit the peg with the wooden mallet again, driving it further into the ground. He moved to the last one and began hammering. The tent he was currently setting up could comfortably house two people and was relatively simple to install. It was made out of a blue cloth with only a simple emblem of the Exalted next to the entrance. Compared to some of the others, the few decorations and relatively bland colour might seem a bit lacking, but he preferred the more simplistic and down-to-earth appearance.

"Milord, you dont have to do this

"I am fine Frederick. I cannot always leave these things to everyone else."

"Very well, Milord." Frederick stood patiently beside him, a towel hanging from his arm as he waited for his lord to finish.

"_Guys! We did this before! How do you mess that up?!_

Chrom glanced towards the terrans, caught up in their own tent-pitching. Theirs was pastel green and bright red. Their odd mix of colours along with its half-oval shape and larger size, made their tent stand out extremely well. It was waterproof too, apparently.

The short terran was complaining to his friends about a missing pole, evidenced by their tent collapsing on one side.

Terrans were odd.

He looked over to another side where Sumia and Robin were chatting with each other in front of their pink flowery tent. The slightly sweaty forehead of the ivory haired tactician told him that she did most of the heavy lifting, probably due to the Sumia's inherent clumsiness. Their situation seemed relatively normal.

The other Shepherds also cohabited in pairs, or had a tent to themselves in Lissa's case. She could keep her snoring to herself.

He spotted Garrick relaxing under a tree, him and Vaike the first ones to finish setting up their tent. The former bandit did his best to stay out of trouble, much to Chrom's delight. Frederick, however, still eyed him with suspicion, as if the man was somehow always plotting something nefarious.

Chrom sighed in relief when the peg was solidly driven into the ground. A towel was put into his hands. He wiped the sweat off, all too aware of Frederick being a perfect servant despite having to serve as no more than a protector.

"Milord, you should create a task for Garrick. He is currently idle."

"Let him relax. We all went through a long day of walking." The prince replied.

"Milord, we need to keep an eye on him. If he has no fixed work to do, he may do as he wishes and escape our sight."

"Will he? He seemed harmless ever since he met Emmeryn. He even held off multiple Risen at once."

"He left the battle shortly afterwards. And don't you find it suspicious that he has not caused any trouble? He could be waiting to strike us when we let our guard down. His accent is also clearly plegian!"

"Frederick. He may be a plegian brigand that crossed the border by accident. Plus, he hasn't done anything wrong."

"He has raided countless villages in the Ylissean countryside, if the sightings were correct. And he may continue doing it if he escapes us."

Frederick's points began to imbue Chrom with a sense of doubt, but the prince was keen on championing her elder sister's vision. If she saw

He grimaced, acknowledging his point . "Maybe. But Emmeryn gave him the possibility to redeem himself. Maybe she'll be correct in giving him a second chance.

"I'd advise caution, Milord."

"Fine. I'll go keep him occupied then. Could you please set up the bedrolls?"

"Of course, Milord."

Chrom jogged over to the tree, giving a glancing wave to other Shepherds as he passed by their tents. The assortment of colours the many tents spread around gave it a sense of identity as Shepherds. They were different from any army or mercenary group.

He found Garrick gazing up at the sky, his axe laid on the ground nearby. The former brigand raised an eyebrow when he took the weapon and laid it against the tree. He then put his own Falchion next to it.

Chrom sat next to him. He didn't know what the man took his previous action for, but hopefully he got the message that he came in peace.

"Ya' wanted to talk to me?" Garrick asked, propping himself up.

"Perhaps. I came here to keep you company."

"Yer' knight tellin' ya I need supervision?" He replied nonchalantly.

"I'm surprised you know that word."

He shrugged. "Sometimes there ain't a lot to do. I can skim through books too."

"You read books in your spare time?"

"Bah, no. Just when there's absolutely nothin' else to do. What about you?"

"I read books because I had to. Honestly, training was much more fun than flipping through endless pages of text."

"Same 'ere."

They remained in silence for a minute, watching Shepherds mill around the camp as they set themselves up for the night.

"So." Garrick began, "Why'd your sister give me another chance? Last I knew Ylisseans didn't do that."

"We are unlike our previous Exalt. The last war brought much ruin to both countries. We do not wish for a repeat."

"I remember the war being about slaughtering us plegians."

"We are different from our father. We wish for peace."

"Easy for you to say. I won't be so sure about it. You butchered thousands of us for your Exalt's stupid crusade. Yer' big statements won't be enough to ease a bloke like me, princey. Us brigands prefer action. If ya mean what ya say, show it."

Chrom sighed, but managed to crack a smile. "Now that's a language I can speak"

"Are ya' up for sparring then? Yer' going to need'ta have strength to back up yer peace." Garrick jumped up and picked up his axe, slinging it over his shoulder. He then took Falchion and held the handle towards Chrom.

"Of course. We brought some training weapons just for this reason. Let's go fetch them."

Chrom took his weapon back, sheathing it. As he led them to the convoy to get their practice weapons, he noticed a small detail.

"You don't have a sheath or sling for your axe?"

"Nah. Never need'd one."

"We should make one for you then."

"Ya sure? I'm fine carrying me axe."

"Of course. If you're to become a Shepherd, then you need a way to put away your weapon."

"You're payin' for it then."

He was aware of the bandit's penniless situation. He hadn't actually paid him yet. It would be a good idea to do it soon.

Chrom chuckled. "Of course."

* * *

**Post-Scriptum: When I wrote Operation Gatecrasher I didn't think it'd end up taking two-thirds of the chapter. I had also planned some other minor things for the Shepherds but I decided it was better to end the chapter on Chrom and Garrick.**

**Hope you guys had a good read**


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